Flaws of a Lie
by throwingsomeshade
Summary: Sam is willing to do anything but tell Danny the truth about her crush on him. Tucker agrees to play along with one particularly disturbing lie, even though he is rooting from the sidelines for Danny and Sam to finally get together.
1. Chapter 1

There he was again, sitting right across from me. I was practically invisible to him as he looked over my head. I wasn't there. I mean I was but if I suddenly disappeared it wouldn't matter. Of course in Danny's world, for the current moment at least, I was as important as a blade of grass, the kind that was already cut.

Tucker and I didn't have to turn around from our lunch table to know that it was a certain teenage girl who kept his utmost attention. It was like this everyday. From 12 to 1 at the Nasty Burger you could expect the Danny Making Googly Eyes show to perform for his only audience member, Valerie Gray. Don't forget that on weekdays the show is moved to the picnic tables at Casper High. Whatever.

It wasn't like I cared. Maybe, just maybe, I had the smallest, smaller than a speck of dust kind of small, crush on Danny. I couldn't help it. I tried not to notice the way his bright blue eyes contrasted with his perfectly messy, black hair. Or how it was cute that he could roundhouse kick a ghost in the face yet still return to a clumsy teenage boy. Valerie didn't appreciate that.

Why, out of every single freakin' human being on the planet, did Danny have to fall for the only girl in Amity park who was trying to hunt Phantom? Not including his mom either, because that would just be wrong on so many levels.

"Earth to Danny," I waved my hands in front of his face. I hoped I had ended any thoughts he had that included Valerie and hand holding. Gross.

Danny's smile faltered as he focused his eyes on Tucker and I. "What?" he played innocent, shrugging off that he was just staring at Valerie for the past 10 minutes.

"Man, you gotta control yourself," Tucker sighed as he looked down at whatever new gadget he had just whipped up last night. "This staring game of yours was funny at first but now it's just sad."

Danny used to play this "staring game" with me. His obsession with Paulina definitely lessened after she became so opened about her own obsession with Phantom. I'm pretty sure he had enough experience of Paulina for both Fenton and Phantom.

I caught him giving me the same puppy dog look where his eyes enlarged enough that I could've drowned in them, yet not to the extent when he was put under a spell by Ember months ago. That was a mess.

We had a few moments where both of our eyes would meet and it felt as if we were connected. Maybe Danny didn't feel the same way, but I was certain that I would see him flush as much as I would before glancing away.

It was a short period between Paulina and Valerie where there seemed to be just me as a source of possible infatuation for his teenage brain, and by short I mean it lasted only a week if anything. Not that I was planning on using it as my chance to make a move, whether it had been a week or a year. Danny would never like me back enough, or as far as I was aware. Tucker always insisted that Danny just didn't understand his own feelings but what does he know?

I took a bite of my tofu sandwich. "Keep staring any longer and you'll go blind," I teased him. I just meant to mess with Danny, yet Tucker found someway to take it as jealousy.

"You know, Danny," Tucker lightly nudged me a couple times, "there are better things to stare at. Maybe things sitting right in front of you." I don't know how he could think he was helping me. I quickly swatted his arm away, not bothering to say something about how I didn't want Tuckers sweaty limbs on me.

I glanced over at Danny, whose complete attention was on Tucker and I now. He raised one dark eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he questioned. His cheeks were stuffed with salami sandwich, making his words come out muffled. I reached over the table and wiped off the mustard on his lower cheek before it could fall onto his white t-shirt. He could try but no ghost power would make that stain come out.

"Clueless," Tuckered laughed. I rolled my eyes and ignored it. Tucker was no genius, but of course he had to rub it in my face with any chance he got that he had figured something out before Danny had, and probably before I had as well. It's still just a dust speck of a crush.

Danny finally swallowed his food. "What do you mean?" his voice was more clear now as he repeated the same question.

"Nothing," I defended myself automatically while pretending to be more occupied with my own sandwhich. And luckily, as usual, Danny let it go. If he were to ever find out it definitely will not be by Tucker mocking us.

"Hi, Danny." I turned my head to the end of our table, in the same direction that his had snapped into place. No longer standing from a distance, now was Danny's chance to ogle Valerie up close. Her green eyes were friendly towards Danny, although in a few hours they'll be filled with hatred as she looks upon Danny _Phantom._

Her orange headband held back her thick, curly hair from falling across her face. Valerie may not be as pretty as Paulina, could anyone be really, but she was still pretty in her own ways. Unlike Paulina, Valerie wasn't too hung up on her looks, so I had to give her credit for that.

When Danny drooled over Paulina, I felt more safe since all the other guys did it so she wasn't much of "competition", not that I am competing anyways. Valerie, although she may have used to act as stuck up as Paulina had once upon a time, was now genuinely a nice person. Nice and pretty, that's what Danny wanted. Maybe the "nice" part annoyed me.

I was nice enough, in a passive aggressive way, but I was never particularly pretty. Not that I care, I'm comfortable with who I am. Goth is the right way to go. Although, goth couldn't stop me from caring every once in awhile about what Danny thought of me.

"Hey, Val," he cooly responded to her. I noticed how the girl's smile grew in response.

"Val?" I unnecessarily echoed right away. Both of them ignored me but it was okay. Just two weeks ago Tucker and I clarified with Valerie that we don't mind her, anymore. And I personally clarified with her that there was nothing going on between Danny and I. I really couldn't have another person going around knowing of my _dust speck_ crush.

"I was wondering," Valerie twisted a long curl around her finger, "since we have next period together, if you would want to walk to history with me?" Her voice raised slightly towards the end, making her sound more of an angel than she did when she was shooting at Phantom. Also making Danny forget how just a week or so ago she said she didn't have time for a relationship. His crush on this girl was wrong in many ways.

But of course this had to happen. "Sure," Danny bolted up from his seat, forgetting his half eaten sandwich. We all had history together, but of course Tucker and I weren't invited. What did they have to talk about that was so important from their lockers to the history room? Not last night's homework, that's for sure.

"Later guys," Valerie gave a small wave and she walked towards the doors.

Cheery Tucker happily waved back at any girl, even if his best friend was her current love interest. Me not so much. "Bye Val," I said in a sickly sweet voice. She didn't hear me, not that I cared.

Danny stopped and looked down at me before he completely abandoned our table. "Are you okay, Sam?"

"Fine."

"Are you sure?" her pressed. Danny was a good guy, I knew he meant his worry.

"Totally," I quipped back, even though it sounded more sarcastic. I was okay, honestly.

He looked me in the eyes for a moment. These seconds always made the world around us seem to freeze, even if it was in the middle of a ghost battle. His extremely blue eyes were calling for me to admit something, not that I was at all ready to do that. Danny gave in and with a smile, was about to turn around and follow Valerie.

"Clueless," Tucker just had to mutter. I elbowed him but Danny's attention was completely on us again.

"Why do you guys always call me that?" he narrowed his eyes at Tucker especially. Tucker was smart enough to know that if he dared to give my secret away to Danny, there would be hell to pay. As best friends, I knew it was wrong to keep secrets, but this one wasn't even supposed to be known by Tucker. It was as if he dug it out of my brain himself.

"Call you what?" I wondered. I had to play dumb since Tucker wasn't too good at talking for himself on the spot.

"Clueless." Danny clearly didn't fall for my act. "You guys call me that all the time. I don't get what I'm clueless about."

I gave him a good ol' smile. "It's just a joke," I, myself, didn't really understand the joke behind randomly calling someone clueless.

"What am I clueless about?" he seemed somewhat annoyed now.

"Nothing, it doesn't mean anything," I was quick to respond. I waited for Danny to let it go like always, except this time he didn't seem to.

"Then why do you keep calling me that?" he pressed. "You guys just called me the same thing five minutes ago."

That was Tucker, not me. It was all Tucker.

Before I could actually respond after rolling my eyes, Danny spoke again. "Tucker," of course, just go for the weak link, "what don't I know that you two do?"

Tucker couldn't lie. He could try, but he wasn't good at it. He opened his mouth and managed to get half a syllable out, which just ended up sounded like a weird animal noise.

The school bells could be heard from inside the building. It was ten minutes until class started. At the same time we could hear Valerie call Danny's name, it sounded so sincere compared to when she spits out _Phantom's_ name.

Danny quickly gave both of us a look that was somewhat of confusion and betrayal, even though I- I mean _we_ \- should be feeling betrayed from how easily he goes off to the girl who already said she couldn't date him. It was good that he wanted to squeeze in as much time as he could with Valerie before class started. Never thought that I would admit that.

Danny and Valerie disappeared into the building. Hopefully Valerie would occupy Danny's mind enough so he would forget about Tucker and I. Again, never thought that I would admit that.

I turned over to Tucker and narrowed my eyes at him. "What was that about?" I almost growled at him.

Tucker crossed his arms, gripping his PDA tightly in his hand. He was nervous I might destroy it, so in a way he recognized he did something wrong that deserves revenge. I wouldn't hurt one of his little toys out of annoyance though. I'm intimidating, but not actually mean. I want to save the polar bears for crying out loud.

"You call him the same thing all the time," he tilted his nose up to seem as if he was looking down at me. He couldn't be intimidating to me though, this is Tucker we are talking about. Even the Box Ghost would make me shake in my boots before Tucker did.

"Not all the time," I huffed, "just when he's being a real dork."

We both stood up and began to pile up our trash, and Danny's who left us to be his garbage men.

Tucker rolled his eyes. "You call him that when he talks about Valerie or girls in general." Tucker smirked, "You _want_ him to know you like him."

"Not so loud," I shushed Tucker. "And no." In no way, shape, or form, including ghost, did I want Danny to know that I like him. I was just a friend to him, it would be too weird.

Tucker frowned at me. "You call him 'Clueless' 'cause you want him to realize that he likes you just as equally, maybe even more back. But then you all of a sudden get in denial about it even though it's obvious he has a major boy crush on you."

Did he really just say "boy crush?" I shook my head, trying to get rid of the hopeless thoughts of Danny liking me. Not that it even mattered if he did or did not because we will always be just friends. "I'm not in denial," I looked both ways for anyone who might be nearby. I couldn't have anyone listening in on our conversation and getting the wrong idea. Another rumor was not needed. "He likes Valerie and that's all there is to it. I'm not trying to make him realize anything."

We walked inside through the cafeteria. I dumped my lunch in the trash and tossed my tray onto an already formed pile. The lunch lady glared at me and muttered something about teenagers. I couldn't help adding to her pile of dishes. At least she got paid to be here.

"Oh please," Tucker rolled his eyes at me. "You might as well write 'I'm Sam Manson and I like you, Danny, and you need to realize that so we can just go out' on your forehead."

"That would never fit on my forehead," I huffed.

There were five minutes until class started. I decided to spend those five minutes ignoring Tucker so that this conversation could be over.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the room was that Danny and Valerie were on opposite ends of the room. Neither looked angry so they couldn't be in a fight. Conveniently, Danny saved two seats next to him in the way back. So he was still thinking of us.

"Hey guys," he chirped at us. As expected, he easily forgot about what had annoyed him during lunch. He seemed relaxed once again.

I sat on one side and Tucker on the other.

"How'd your date with Valerie go?" Tucker teased.

"It wasn't a date," Danny and I said at the same time. My cheeks flushed before he even looked back at me to give me a questioning look. Tucker wiggled his eyebrows at me from behind Danny. I paid no mind to him, he's an idiot.

I shrugged and casually leaned back, pretending to be interested in the teacher's introduction to the class for the day. History wasn't hard, it was just memorizing a bunch of random facts.

Both Danny and Tucker seized to talk, hopefully not from my awkwardness though. I didn't want whatever I say to linger on Danny's mind.

Halfway through the class I notice Danny and Tucker passing notes back and forth. As I was peering at Danny scribbling on the folded up notebook paper, he glanced over at me but quickly ducked his head again when he noticed that I was watching him. Was he writing about me?

A couple minutes later I get a note on fresh paper.

 _Why am I clueless?_

I wonder why he couldn't just let it go. Did Tucker and I really call him that that much? Only a few times during the week at most.

I wrote him back.

 _You aren't clueless. I don't know what Tucker was talking about._

Much quicker than when I had responded, the note came back to my desk.

 _You call me the same thing._

Danny's handwriting was messy. I felt like an elementary teacher trying to read a ten year old's first essay. The letters were small and slanted, compared to mine which were nicely rounded.

I didn't respond to the letter and just allowed for him and Tucker talk back and forth, hoping that they would share with me after class what exactly they had so much to write about. And if Tucker gives up anything that's supposed to remain unsaid, and unwritten, then I might have to rethink about not plummeting his PDA at the wall.

The rest of the day basically went like this: in between classes Danny would pester us about what he was clueless about and send notes in class. I was thankful, for once in my life, that Danny wasn't in two of my afternoon classes.

By last period I had began to feel sorry for him. He was under the impression that Tucker and I had some big secret from him. I hadn't thought of it before, but technically Tucker and I did have a secret that we were choosing not to let Danny in on. Both of them were my best friends, but I was aware that Danny had an even closer friendship with Tucker. They shared a guy bond that I couldn't really ever understand. I was making Tucker somewhat break that, but it was harmless, right? We weren't keeping secrets to hurt anyone.

Danny ambushed me at my locker. It was the end of the day and I wasn't exactly planning on hiding from him since we already made plans to hang out like every other day.

"Sam," he said my name in almost a desperate tone.

I didn't even have to listen to him to know what he was asking.

"You guys are killing me here, why am I clueless?"

I was proud of Tucker, he lasted all classes with Danny and didn't give in.

I smiled at Danny. He didn't return it, which I couldn't blame him. Danny was trying not to get distracted. He wanted answers and I felt as if I had to get him one. I couldn't just say anything, I had to say something that would make sense for Tucker and I to make such a point of not telling him.

"Just tell me Sam," Danny yanked on the side of his hair, not too hard though. "You guys are gonna drive me insane. Tucker wouldn't crack at all."

I sighed, seeming cool on the outside even though in my mind I was quickly going over ideas in for a story I could make up. I didn't want to lie, but Danny wouldn't shut up and there was no way he was going to know of my crush. My dust speck of a crush.

I blurted something, which in retrospect was not a good idea at all. I could've said anything, literally anything, yet I had to say the most disgusting thing I could have ever imagined. "Tucker and I are dating."

Danny halted. His eyes widened slightly, I was expecting him to be angry for a moment. He wasn't. He was just frozen. It was off putting. I stared at him as he gazed off into the distance.

"You're- Wait- What?" Danny fumbled over his words, trying to think of a way to respond.

You and I are in the same boat buddy.

I almost threw up in my mouth. Never have I ever thought of Tucker and I together like _that_. This was as bad as the time when I had accidentally wished Danny and I to have never being friends and Tucker tried to hit on my when we first "met." That haunted my nightmares.

"Yep," I weakly said, my voice breaking. I tried to think of a way to take it back, to make up another story but if I did that then Danny would forsure know that everything was a lie until I actually came clear about my dust speck crush and we couldn't have that happening now could we.

Danny still didn't seem mad. A small part of me was hoping that maybe he was. Not mad about his best friends hiding something big but maybe mad about me having a boyfriend. I know, I'm a stupid girl. I mean I'm smart, but things I do can just be really stupid.

Danny looked down at the ground. "I'll see you later," he mumbled and quickly left me behind.

Of course he was upset. His best friends were keeping a secret from him, and I just told him a lie. He didn't know it was a lie though. What was better: him thinking I was dating Tucker or him knowing that I liked him more than just a friend? Trick question, both of them were horrible.

I quickly shoved my stuff in and closed my locker. Thankfully no one heard my small, completely false lie. I really couldn't have that rumor floating around school.

Assuming that this was where Danny went, I had to find Tucker before a certain ghost boy did. I couldn't just phase through walls and hunt him down in two seconds.

His locker was deserted and Danny wasn't around it either. At least I didn't stumble upon them talking, but I still had to be certain that Tucker wasn't hiding off somewhere with Danny.

I eventually found him sitting outside on the front steps, alone. His blue backpack was discarded off to the side by his feet. His red beret stuck out from behind a group of girls walking towards the buses. As I approached him, I noticed how his glasses were perched high on his nose. Tucker was typing away furiously on a gameboy of some sorts.

Tucker's look of extreme anguish told me that he was about to win when I took the device from his hands. Before he could protest I dragged him off to the side of the school.

"Have you seen Danny yet?" I quickly asked him.

"I was a little busy there," he narrowed his eyes at me. I returned the look, causing Tucker to swallow any insults and answer me. "No, which is weird cause he said we'd meet at the steps."

I bit my bottom lip and glanced back towards the steps, Danny still wasn't there and it had been ten minutes since I've seen him at my own locker. "I kinda told him something," my voice was unusually high and nervous.

Tucker's face lit up. "You told him?" Tucker would've been happy if I told Danny that I liked him, which is still just a tiny dust speck of a crush, right?

"Not exactly," I played with my words. I really didn't want Tucker to make a stupid remark of how much of a stud he was. Other girls can think of him as that, not that any of them have, but I never will. "I did something bad."

Tucker furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "It can't be that bad."

You have no idea.

I glanced at the steps again, still no Danny. I messed up bad. I didn't lie to Danny before and now that I had, it blew up in my face, or at least it's going to.

"I told Danny," I was certain to speak slowly, dreading what I was about to say, "that he was clueless to us dating." I clenched my eyes shut, not wanting to see a horrified face.

A few seconds later I heard laughter. It was Tucker. I opened my eyes to see him leaning against a tree, crying. He was uncontrollably laughing.

I frowned at him, waiting for him to finish up whatever he found funny that I clearly did not.

Tucker straightened up, breathing heavily while wiping the tears from his eyes. "There is no way you told him that, Sam," Tucker shook his head in amusement. "Really, what did you tell him?"

I didn't respond, waiting for him to catch on that I wasn't lying.

After a moment, he scrunched up his face. "You told him _that_?"

I pressed my lips tighter together. I nodded my head while glancing off to the side, it was embarrassing.

Tucker began to speak again, "As much of a stud"- I knew it- "that I know I am, that just isn't true. I like you as a friend and hope we can remain that way."

I glared at him for making up antics at a time like this. "Yeah I know that moron," I retorted. "I just couldn't think up of anything else on the spot. You were probably on the verge of caving if he asked you anymore-"

"I was."

"-and I couldn't let him know."

Tucker sighed as if he was the wiser one of us, which for the moment he might be. "I don't see why it is such a big deal to keep it a secret. He likes you and you like him."

I didn't bother denying that I liked Danny at the moment. "He likes Valerie," I had to point out. I continued to speak before Tucker would again insist on Danny liking me, that was just crazy. "I don't know what to do."

I noticed how Tucker looked over my shoulder, ignoring my cry for advice. I turned around and saw someone that made my stomach drop. It was once again Danny with Valerie, both chatting it up as happy as ever. Danny never hung out with Valerie after school since she said she didn't want a boyfriend, so why now?

His eyes glanced at Tucker and I. He quickly averted his gaze as if he had stumbled upon something he shouldn't have seen. It occurred to me almost instantly that he figured he saw Tucker and I standing together as a _couple_.

We watching the two walk away off to who knows where. Probably a date.

"Pretending to be a couple won't kill us."

I turned back to Tucker, surprised by his suggestion. "What?" I was at a lost for words. He wasn't freaking out like I was.

"We don't have to actually do any of the gross stuff, just say that we are when around Danny."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What would that accomplish?" I couldn't imagine Danny getting jealous over Tucker and I.

Tucker scoffed. "What wouldn't it?" Don't you dare talk to me like I'm dumb Foley. "You get time to come to terms with your lovesick feelings, Danny can get all jealous, and in the end you will tell him the truth and all is well."

I wasn't convinced. "It's not that easy."

"It could be." Tucker nodded his head in the direction Danny and Valerie disappeared to, "He's already jealous."

I gaped at Tucker. "Jealous?" I saw Danny flirting it up with "Val," not me. "He just walked off with another girl that wasn't me. I don't think he cares if I get married tomorrow." I realized it was a bad choice of words when Tucker smirked.

"You don't get guys," Tucker stated matter of fact. "Danny did that to prove that he isn't jealous, _obviously_." Yeah, obvious. "He's trying to distract himself. It's like what you tried to do with that Gregor- I mean Elliot- guy before."

That was recent. I never told Tucker that I was using Gregor to move on. Was I that easy to read? It didn't work out and I ended up getting mad at Danny when he tried to eavesdrop on us. "Is that really what he's doing?" I wondered, completely unsure of what to think.

Tucker grinned at me. "Come on Mrs. Foley," he made his eyebrows do the wave while giving some weird look. I think this was him flirting.

I felt like I was going to vomit.


	2. Chapter 2

**Quick note: I changed the title from "Anything But" to "Flaws of a Lie." Sorry for any confusion and the title will remain this way.**

* * *

Danny was already trying to avoid me. I could tell from all of my unanswered text messages last night. I had only tried calling him once and it went straight to voicemail. I tried telling myself that he was too busy off fighting ghost, but I knew that wasn't true.

We had all of our morning classes together so he couldn't hide from me forever.

When I first entered the classroom, Danny was nowhere in sight. I wasn't surprised though. It was early and my best friend was always running late.

I quickly took a seat next to Tucker.

"Hey, girlfriend," he said casually, not glancing up at me from his gameboy.

I punched his upper arm, hoping that I had affected his game in some way. First two words out of his mouth and I was already annoyed.

"What?" Tucker replied rather defensively, "You're a girl and my friend."

I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one had heard. I really didn't want a rumor spreading around. I kept thinking over the night about what Danny and Valerie could possibly be talking about, praying that he had not mentioned anything about Tucker and I dating.

They couldn't have spent that much time together, Valerie usually spent her evenings in a red suit attacking him. The thought of them going back to being all gushy with each other already made me want to hurl. And my chest ache a little.

"Don't get smart with me." I sat down next to Tucker. There was an empty seat on my other side, Danny would be sitting there hopefully soon. Speaking of which, "Has he talked to you since school yesterday?"

Tucker shrugged while stuffing his game away in his pocket. "Not really. I mean we messaged a little but he just kept giving those annoying one worded answers. Eventually I just didn't respond and neither did he."

"Do you think he's mad?" I frowned. A part of me already knew that he was. I already felt guilty for bringing Tucker into this. I didn't want Danny to feel betrayed by both of his best friends.

Tucker smiled at me. I didn't feel comforted by how calm he was. I, on the other hand, was becoming more anxious with every passing moment. "He may be, Sam, but we _aren't_ actually dating. Danny is my best friend, and so are you, but I can't lie to him for a long time. I suggest you think of what you're going to say to him."

I didn't want to lie to Danny either. It was wrong, almost as wrong as pretending to date Tucker. "What should I tell him then?" I dropped my voice as more people came into the classroom, "It would be weird telling him that I just lied about dating you for the heck of it. He wouldn't buy it."

"That's why you tell him you love him," Tucker casually pointed out.

I tried not to flinch at the use of the word "love." I know I loved Danny to a certain extent, but I couldn't use that word to describe and romantic feelings towards him. That would be too powerful.

"I don't _love_ him," I grumbled while making a point to glare at Tucker.

Mr. Lancer stood at the front of the classroom. He closed the door and locked it so that no students could sneak into class late without getting a detention for being late. I felt bad for the ones who would come in seconds past the door closing who would receive no mercy. Sometimes that man took his job too seriously.

With a quick glance to my other side I saw the seat still remained empty.

"Yes you do," Tucker quietly sang back to me.

"No I don't."

"He feels the same way," Tucker insisted.

I could hear Mr. Lancer begin to read off the roll call. No one really paid attention other than a split second to respond.

"Dash Baxter."

"Pineapple!" Some people thought that they were funny by calling out a random fruit when they heard their name instead of "here!" At times I was simply surrounded by morons.

"Danny does not," I whispered sharply, hoping to get the last word and end this conversation all together. Tucker just blinked at me before facing the front.

A couple more names were called out, mostly people that I've never talked to or just shouted "Goth Girl" at me when they tried to make fun of whoever they thought were considered losers. I call myself goth, I really don't see how it's an insult.

"Daniel Fenton."

"Here," an breathy voice right out of my line of sight responded. I jumped slightly, surprised that I hadn't noticed Danny come in. He must've phased in through the back of the room when no one was looking.

Danny leaned back in his chair with his hands stuffed in his pockets. His hair looked extra soft today and his dark bangs hung over his forehead. I noticed large lines underneath both of his eyes. I wondered why he hadn't slept much last night. If there really were that many ghosts that kept him up all night he would've called for help. The thought of him losing sleep over Tucker and I was ridiculous though.

His t-shirt and jeans were wrinkled and looked as if they had been already worn from the day before. I could just imagine him oversleeping and having to go ghost to just barely make it to school in time, it was something he did at least once a week.

Danny didn't look back at me. It was almost as if he was making a point to keep his eyes straight.

"Tucker Foley."

"Here."

Danny didn't even glance in our direction the entire time. As soon as class ended he was gone. As if that wasn't uncomfortable enough, I spent every morning class with Danny.

Second period came around and I had no Tucker to sit by. When I entered the classroom, all the seats around Danny were already taken. I knew it was on purpose. I wanted to be accepting and give him space, which also gave me time to think of how I could talk my way out of this mess, but something about seeing Valerie right by his side made me want to throw myself out the window.

I plopped down next to a kid named Mikey. I don't remember what I learned in 2nd period, I spent it staring at the back of Danny's head.

It wasn't until right before lunch I had gotten a chance to talk to Danny. He had successfully managed to avoid me in every class so far. Tucker had sneaked his way in to sit next to him but no words were said between the two.

Before Danny could run off again I grabbed him by his shoulder. I pulled him back into the classroom as everyone vacated. It was just Danny, Tucker and I, three best friends, talking to one another as always.

"How come you haven't answered any of my messages?" I pressed, wondering what excuse he was going to make up.

Danny's blue eyes darted away from Tucker and I. I could already tell he was uncomfortable. It had slipped my mind that to Danny Tucker and I were in a relationship. That idea made me uncomfortable.

"I was busy catching ghosts all night," he shrugged. I could tell by the strain in his face that he was stifling a yawn.

"You could've asked for our help," I tried to reason.

Danny looked at Tucker. He didn't smile at all. Danny was really upset with Tucker right now. My feeling of guilt deepened. "I don't need it." I was half expecting for him to say that he didn't need us. I almost sighed in relief when he didn't.

"What's wrong?" I stepped forward, reaching my hand out to touch Danny's arm. It was instinctive to give him some sort of physical contact. He was quick to step back so that he was just out of my reach.

Danny's eyes darted between Tucker and I.

Tucker was uncharacteristically quiet. He was looking directly at me. I knew in my head already that he was giving me a lecture that will probably be said aloud later.

"You guys-" Danny finally began to speak after a couple moments, but was interrupted.

I looked around Danny to see Valerie peeking in through the doorway. "Are you coming to lunch?" she asked, oblivious to our trouble in paradise.

"Yeah I'll be there in a second," Danny flashed a smile at her. I internally groaned at the amount of life that seemed to be added to his mood. I don't want to be a horrible friend, but something about his happiness around Valerie was really aggravating.

"I'll see you guys later," Danny quickly mumbled before turning away. Valerie hooked her arm on his elbow.

The two vanished from the room before I could stop Danny without sounding desperate.

"So much for talking," I muttered.

Tucker sighed from beside me. "You gotta tell him."

"That we aren't actually dating?" I suggested, even though I knew what Tucker meant.

"That you like him," Tucker shook me, probably literally trying to shake some sense into him.

I pushed him away. "That won't happen," I gave a humorless laugh. I was really pitying myself right now.

Tucker rolled his eyes at me. "He clearly likes you too!" Tucker gestured in the direction that Danny had disappeared to. "And this is already messing up our friendship Sam."

I was messing up our friendship. Not just mine, but Tucker's and Danny's. "I'm sorry, Tucker," I said with a huge weight in my chest.

He waved me off, not seeming bothered at all. "Like I said, we aren't actually dating. I just think you should really tell Danny the truth," Tucker sighed. He really wanted me to open up to Danny about my feelings. Funny. "Or at least inform Danny that you and I aren't actually dating," Tucker added.

"He likes Valerie," I pointed out the obvious. "Telling him that I have a tiny crush is unnecessary then." My feelings were very unnecessary.

"Valeries come and go, Sam," Tucker said, I knew he was trying to make me feel better. I felt somewhat honored that he wasn't talking up about how perfect Valerie was, I knew of his history with crushes on every pretty girl. "You're the girl who has been with Danny through it all."

I didn't want to comment on Tucker's reasoning. Maybe if it was anyone else, I'd agree about how much that makes sense. "What should I tell him then?"

"That you like him."

I rolled my eyes. Tucker wouldn't lighten up about it. "That isn't an option," I almost yelled to him.

"Think about it," Tucker was about to say something that made sense, I could just feel it, "if he didn't like you he'd just be grossed out about us dating. Danny would be making jokes and bothering us. Instead he's all mad and ignoring both of us. I'd be mad too if one of my best friends started dating the girl I liked for awhile."

"He doesn't like me," I mumbled, "he likes Valerie." I knew I was being stubborn, but Tucker was just imagining things. Not that I would mind if Danny liked me, but he doesn't. It's always been another girl. Right now that girl is Valerie.

But something was more important than whether or not Danny liked me back. With just one lie I tampered with our friendship. I liked the way things were, and I wanted them to stay the same.

"I'll talk to Danny, Tucker," I forced a small smile. I was going to make things right.

"Please do it soon." Tucker grimaced, "Danny looked like he was going to punch me earlier. I can't have any damage to _this._ " Tucker gestured to his face.

"You mean you always look like that?" I joked. It was easy to mess with Tucker. As a friend, I loved him for that. He never took our highschool days too seriously and for the most part was a simple person. For the most part.

When Tucker and I finally made it to the cafeteria, Danny was nowhere in sight. Valerie sat with a few popular kids, not as popular as Paulina's table. She didn't seem upset. It was weird. I always see her walk off with Danny yet they're never spending much time actually hanging out. I wonder if they even hung out much last night.

Tucker and I found our own table. It was strange, just being the two of us. Tucker and I always hung out alone but it was different when Danny was purposely avoiding us.

I couldn't stop thinking about Danny. Tucker still didn't seem bothered. It was strange. I even made Danny mad at him as well but Tucker looked unaffected. I noticed by the random conversation Tucker kept attempting to start that he was trying to take my mind off of Danny.

"...that's why you never leave your underwear-"

"I still don't know what I'm going to say to Danny," I blurted, cutting off Tucker. I hadn't even heard half of what he was saying and I didn't care much to hear the rest.

Tucker shrugged, "I still think you should just tell him that you like him." He leaned in close and began to raise a fist. "Team Sam," he chanted in a whisper.

"There aren't any teams," I grumbled. I banged my head on the lunch table.

"How about this," Tucker tapped on my skull, causing me to look up at him, "for a week, _just_ a week, we pretend to be a couple." He raised his finger, pretending like he was interrupting me about to speak. I wasn't. " _Buuut_ you have to clear the air with Danny. I won't tell him a thing about us or your crush. You have to do that all on your own next Friday."

"Why a week?" I wondered, eyeing him.

Tucker smirked at me, "If you don't, then I will."

I was sure to give Tucker the death look. He knew better than to cross me. "Do that and you'll be joining Skulker in the Ghost Zone," I threatened, wholeheartedly meaning it.

He didn't flinch at me. "I'm tired of you and Danny dancing around your feelings," he grimaced slightly at the word "feelings." It was as if he was allergic to real emotions, not computers. "You wouldn't do a thing," Tucker smirked when I realized he may have the upper hand. "In fact," he added, "I could tell Danny right now. You get all weird around him sometimes, ya know. I'm not going to do that though, I'll give you a week."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek while thinking up multiple ways to stuff Tucker in the Fenton thermos.

I ditched Tucker 20 minutes before class to find Danny, and no it was not to pour my heart out to him.

The halls were empty save for a couple vigorously making out. I recognized them as one of the ones that will most likely have already be broken up by Monday. Not that it was much of my business, but part of me figured that drifting from person to person seemed somewhat empty. I never understood how Tucker developed a crush on every girl he laid his eyes on, disincluding me.

I barely saw the clanging of lockers as each door suddenly burst open. I instinctively raised my arm to block my head as scraps of metal flew across the room from broken locks. At least a dozen people were going to be POed when they discover that they'll have to buy new ones. I'm pretty sure one of those were Tucker's.

A gust of cold air blew across me. Goosebumps covered my exposed arms.

There was a ghost, and probably Phantom as well.

I lowered my arm and looked over my shoulder. No one was insight, and I doubted I was in the middle of an intangible ghost fight.

The two lovers seemed to not have even noticed. What is wrong with teenagers these days?

I was beginning to sound like Mr. Lancer.

I continued to glance around the hallway, slowly doing a 360. It was eerily calm throughout the area. Something felt very wrong.

I flipped out my phone. I speed dialed Danny- number 1- and listened to the generic ring. Was he really still ignoring me? We were still best friends. A tiny part of me wondered, or hoped, that Tucker could be right, I'll never say that out loud. For some reason, as annoying as it was, I wouldn't mind if Danny was mad because Tucker was dating some girl he liked.

Not to get too full of myself, but I wasn't just some girl, I was his best friend. We grew up together since school. I was basically one of the guys, not a love interest. It was the truth and I couldn't kid myself.

Right before my phone cut to voicemail, blue streak flew past me. I took a few steps back as a woman formed from the cloud. She hovered above me, almost on top of the ceiling. She carried the ghostly glow, making her pale skin shine in an almost blinding manner. Her thick, red hair swayed in tight curls that barely graced her shoulders. Her green eyes almost matched those of Danny Phantom's. Her body was engulfed in an oversized sweater of a similar color.

She glanced over with an innocent grin at the couple that was now going back and forth about who loved the other more.

Suddenly, the boy halted in his sentence. He went stiff as if he was a robot that had just been reset. "Your sister is hotter than you," he blurted out to the girl. Promptly he earned a solid slap across the face. As the girl stalked off down the hallway, he remained in his place with one hand cradling his cheek. I could tell by the expression on his face that he seemed confused as to what had just happened.

I gaped at the scene that had just played out before looking up at the ghost, who seemed pleasantly satisfied with herself.

"Now we couldn't have a relationship built up on lies, now could we?" she giggled to herself.

Another gust of wind brushed past me. I was relieved to see Danny, the Phantom one, appear right before me. My arm felt tingly where his hand had _almost_ grabbed me. He stood in a protective stance, even though I was more than capable of handling myself, right in front of me.

"Stop there, you uhh," Danny's words awkwardly trailed off, "whoever you are."

This was a new ghost, or at least it was her first time visiting Amity Park from the Ghost Zone. Danny didn't know who she was and neither did I. Usually ghosts would announce their names upon arrival.

"What is your name?" I asked from behind Danny. He turned his head towards me for a brief moment. I was able to get a clear view of his green eyes that seemed to shine in the already lit hallway. He didn't look as mad as he had before, but something was still off. It made my heart hurt when he seemed to just look over me before turning around again.

The girl twisted a curl around her index finger. "Serena Valentine," she grinned.

It was just a simple name, nothing that stood out. She looked like a normal person with a normal name, despite that fact that she was dead.

I was about to ask her another question, but a sudden feeling of my throat swelling over came me. It all happened too quick. I couldn't even comprehend what was happening when I felt myself blurt, "I accidentally kicked a squirrel at an animals' rights protect and blamed it on the guy next to me." My eyes widened.

Danny turned towards me with a raise eyebrow. I had never told anyone that. I did feel bad when they chased the other guy out, but I had panicked at the time. Why did I say that? I wasn't even thinking about that incident. It was years ago.

"Sam, are you okay?" Danny awkwardly asked me. I tried giving him a smile while shrugging.

Serena laughed with a sudden glare in her eyes. Her red hair flared up around her shoulders. "I cannot stand a liar," she half growled.

"I thought you just had something against squirrels," Danny deadpanned.

Serena narrowed her eyes at Danny. I saw he was about to attempt at another witty line, notice my use of the word attempt, but I saw a sudden halt in his motion. For a split second he was wide eyed and solid as a rock. "I peed my pants next to the hot teacher in 3rd grade."

Did he really just say that? "Uhh," Danny trailed on while frantically looking between me and Serena. The ghost was snickering behind her hand.

It didn't take long for either of use to put two and two together. She was somehow doing this. From the boy earlier, to me and to Danny, she was making people… say things?

"Well," Danny regained his composure and tried to look intimidating once more, "Sam won't be the only one kicking rabid animals." I couldn't help but roll my eyes. It was one time!

Danny's hand began to glow as he charged right for Serena. He shot an ectoblast for her head, which she expertly dodged.

"You almost hit me!" she screeched in a high-pitched, bratty tone. Serena glared at Danny.

Danny shot another blast at her, this one knocking her back into the wall of opened lockers. He whipped out the Fenton Thermos, pointing it directly at the ghost girl.

Before she could get sucked in, Serena swung her hand to the left. Simultaneously, an invisible force knocked the thermos from Danny. I dove and caught the thermos before it could fall to the ground.

When I looked up I saw Serena pushing herself off the lockers. She turned her focus from Danny to me. "Give me that!" Serena suddenly showed how sharp her nails were. I didn't have enough time to aim the thermos at her.

"Sam!"

A cold arm wrapped itself around my waist. Just as Serena's nail barely managed to scratch me, Danny yanked me out of the way with him. We tumbled through a wall and landed in a thankfully empty classroom.

"Danny," I gasped as he held me somewhat closer to him than usual.

He looked down at me and blinked as if he had just woken up from a daydream. He awkwardly let me go. I could tell he purposely kept me at least an arm's length away. It had crossed my mind once more that in Danny's world Tucker and I were dating. That's something that would never actually happen.

Danny stuck his head into the hallway. "She's gone," he said, although I think it was more so to himself than I.

He pulled the classroom door closed. Danny straightened up. He stared at me and I at him. His white hair was slightly disheveled. His eyes were round. The green in them seemed to captivate me. I couldn't look away from him, and for the first time since yesterday, Danny wasn't trying to avoid my gaze.

"Sam," Danny sighed. He was frustrated. Danny raked a hand through his hair, the white locks fell perfectly against his forehead once more. I remained silent. He sucked in a deep breath, "Sam I-." Danny never finished his sentence. He huffed in frustration before disappearing.

I raised my hand to reach out to the empty space that was once where Danny stood. "Danny," I frowned, "I'm sorry." I felt evaded of all energy. Now I just wanted to go home and sleep. If I could, I would go back to yesterday, where I should've just remained silent.

I slowly exited the classroom, dazed and confused. That was all thanks to a certain clueless, halfa, teenage boy. Yep, I'm calling Danny clueless, even though I was more than annoyed when Tucker had done it repeatedly yesterday.

A dozen of students, one of them being Tucker, were all complaining about the vandalization of their lockers.

"Hey Tucker," I said with a forced smile.

I noticed that in the short time span of 5 minutes someone had took the chance to spill all of the books and computers from Tucker's locker while it was opened. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Dash. I bent down to help him shove the load of crap back into his locker.

Tucker reached into his pocket and pulled out another lock. I raised my eyebrows at him, wondering why he would just carry around a lock with him. "What?" Tucker obliviously asked, "People always break my locks." Poor Tucker.

"Yeah well this time it wasn't a person," I groaned, thinking back to the ghost that had just gotten away.

"Was it the crazy lunch lady?" Tucker wondered. I strongly disliked the meat crazed, lunch lady ghost. Everytime I saw her she would drop some amount of meat onto me. The pure thought made me cringe. Thankfully it wasn't her.

I shook my head at Tucker, "No. New ghost." I chewed on the inside of my cheek, "I don't know what her motives were really." Casper High had always been a hotspot attack for ghosts. Out of all the places it had to be a building that smells like puberty.

"What's her name?" Tucker asked as we walked to class.

"Serena Valentine," I swiftly answered. I could perfectly imagine the pale girl with bright, red hair. She definitely didn't look like she was from this generation, but she didn't seem much older than myself. Just another teenager.

I was the first to enter the class. "It was weird thou-" I halted in the doorway. In an unusual change, Danny was sitting right next to Valerie. I didn't hear what they were talking about, but she was giggling up a storm. What could Danny have said that was so funny? Her hand rested on his bare arm below the sleeve of his t-shirt. And what happened to not wanting a boyfriend?

I felt Tucker pull me along with him to the back of the classroom. He was purposely trying to ignore Danny for my sake. It wasn't really working.

"What was weird?" Tucker pressed on.

"The ghost," I spoke without taking my eyes off of Danny, who had seemed genuinely happy himself now. "It's like she has this power to manipulate what you say."

It wasn't hard to notice that Danny went back to ignoring me, and probably Tucker too, again. He wouldn't spare a single glance in our direction. I hoped he wasn't too caught up in his conversation with Valerie that he wasn't even able to notice Tucker and I came in. I would usually be fine with being invisible to Danny while he talked to another girl, but now while we were in a fight. Or at least I think we're fighting right now.

"Sam." I felt Tucker poking my shoulder. I turned my head to see him giving me a sympathetic look. I hated that look. I wasn't someone who needed to be pitied. I had just put myself in a stressful situation that was beginning to ruin my friendship with a boy whom I may or may not have a crush on. I would also like to add the fact that Tucker wasn't willing to speak for me to help me out of this.

"Nothing's wrong," I laughed slightly while getting out my notebook for class.

"I never asked," Tucker's look of concern grew stronger.

I kept my eyes down on my desk, "Good because, as I already said, nothing is wrong."

I really had to get this lying thing under control.

* * *

 **Since I hadn't really done so in the first chapter I'll do a quick introduction. After a year long hiatus I have decided to create a new fanfiction account for a "fresh" start. I am currently struck with inspiration and will be updating a couple times a month.**

 **If you haven't been able to tell yet, this is a DannyxSam story cause I love those guys and am a 16 year old obsessed with cartoons so I gotta get my creative outlet out there. It will remain in Sam's point of view throughout the entire story.**

 **Thank you to everyone who has followed, faved or reviewed so far! I'm a little shy but I will work on checking and responding to your reviews!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the delay! My computer was acting up!**

 **Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or followed! I really appreciate it!**

* * *

As soon as the final class let out, I decided to hunt down Danny. He would most likely be heading to his locker like anyone else would on a Friday afternoon.

In all of my correctness, Danny was there in the busy crowd. His head was hidden behind his locker door as he shoved whatever books into his backpack. It looked like he had a lot of weekend homework he most likely won't do.

I took my chance to snatch his backpack from him while he was unsuspecting.

A flash of confusion widened his eyes. Danny spun his head towards me. I notice the tension within him only slacken slightly.

I grinned, which he did not return, while holding up his backpack to taunt him.

"Can I have that back, Sam?" he didn't seem to have the intention to play along.

"You have to get it," I began to back up. I zipped up the backpack and slung it over my shoulders while balancing my own books in my other arm. I slipped in between my peers. I was the only person walking against the crowd trying to escape the building as fast as possible.

I heard Danny slam his locker, rather loudly, shut.

I was certain that I was able to disappear briefly from his view. While I was shorter than most of the teenagers that swarmed around me, my goth look also made me stand out in the crowd.

I picked up my pace as I turned down an almost deserted hallway. I was lucky I could still outrun Danny when he was just himself, not Phantom. As Phantom, he had the help of ghost powers to make him more fit.

I dug a bobby pin out of my pocket and picked at the knob of the janitor's closet. I slyly opened it and ducked inside. I intentionally left the door cracked open for Danny to find. Barely a moment later he stepped inside.

Danny didn't close the door behind him. I reached around him, barely grazing his shoulder, and shut it myself. I pretended not to notice how Danny stepped further away from me at the barely skin contact.

"Can I have that back now?" Danny held out his hand for the back pack. He looked at my face, but not directly into my eyes. On the contrary, I was taking in all the blueness of his orbs that I possibly could. They weren't bright and beautiful now, instead they seemed foreign and dull. It ached my chest, not too painfully.

"No," I backed against the wall. If I gave it to him now, he could easily phase through the door and away from me. "You and I need to talk," I stated as a matter of fact.

It was clear he did not wish to be here. Too bad. Don't think you can hide from me, Danny, I know where you live.

"Why are you acting weird?" I pressed, even though I was almost certain I knew why already.

Danny made a noise that somewhat gave away that he was about to lie. "I'm not acting weird," he crossed his arms like a bratty teenager.

I rolled my eyes at his immaturity. "You totally are," I scoffed, "you've avoided not only me, but Tucker too."

"Well I wouldn't want to infringe on your couple time," Danny mocked. I was taken aback by how quickly he responded. I pretended that I was not hurt by Danny's tone.

"Between Tucker and I?" I asked, hoping that my attitude showed how crazy he sounded. It had almost slipped my mind that Tucker and I were fake dating, somewhat. I know Danny and I have shared fake-out make-outs, but with Tucker… let's just say he's not even getting a kiss on the cheek. Honestly we've only told Danny that we were dating, or at least I did, we never actually acted as a couple. "You aren't infringing on anything."

I noticed the way his left eye twitched. "Well aren't I special," he almost spat. Okay, he was getting mad, and we haven't even talked yet. I have never met a girl more moody than Daniel Fenton.

"Why are you mad at me?" my voice unitentionally raised. I didn't mean to sound so defensive, but I couldn't help myself. "I didn't do anything wrong." Except lie to you, but other than that.

"Of course not," Danny sarcastically chuckled. "Not you, Sam," he said my name so bitter-sweet, "you would never do anything wrong."

I was speechless for a second. What the actual hell? Not to be that person, but I was somewhat beginning to feel personally attacked. I never held myself above others, especially him or Tucker.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I narrowed my eyes at him, almost daring him to say something stupid.

Danny didn't care though. "You always play the victim when you know for a fact you have done something wrong."

I was speechless. I stared wide-eyed into Danny's. He looked way beyond foreign now, something must have happened overnight because this was not my Danny.

For starters, I don't even know how his argument, which is not true, has to fit into our situation at all. I was playing the victim? Of what exactly? I would've asked him that, but the words just didn't seem to form.

"You know it's true too," Danny smirked. It wasn't playful, just mean. It was the same type of smile Dash would give right before he shoved Danny in a locker.

He didn't move and neither did I. My eyes felt more watered than they were a moment ago. My head began to ache along with a rare feeling of my chest growing sore. I really did not know the kid infront of me.

Danny, as confusing as he could be, was always readable to an extent. But in this moment, I had no idea as to what could possibly be going on in his head.

"Here," I muttered, my voice breaking as the word ended. I shoved his backpack into his chest, not caring that I did it roughly enough that he had to take a step back. I turned my head away from Danny, focusing on opening the closet door and getting away from him as fast as humanly possible.

Not once did I glance back at Danny as I left the closet. He didn't call my name out in a protest. This was different. It wasn't a fight. In a fight, we'd go back and forth before ending up apologizing when someone tries to angrily walk away. Here I am walking away, feeling more dejected than ever, and no sign of Danny trying to muster up an apology.

I kept my head down while walking quickly through the hallways. I didn't bother to stop for my locker as I headed straight for the exit.

I ignored Tucker, who was walking in the other direction than I. He stopped right before me, "Hey, Sam?" I could tell that Tucker had noticed something was wrong, but I didn't bother to stop and talk. I had a strong desire to be alone. Tucker didn't follow me either, which left me feeling relieved. Maybe he could deal with Danny, because I surely didn't want to.

I am proud of myself for one thing other than controlling myself from punching that Danny in the face. From the walk from school to home, which seemed to take forever, not once did I cry. I didn't cry as I walked up my stairs. I did not cry as I slammed my door shut behind me. And I did not cry as I threw myself down onto my bed, feeling exhausted from what should've been an average day. Maybe I came close to it, but that's unnecessary information. I knew in that moment that I did not have feelings for Danny, because if I had, then my cheeks would've been soaked.

I woke up without even realizing that I had fallen asleep. It was darker in my room now than it had been whenever I had fallen asleep. I rubbed my eyes before blinking at the ceiling.

Waking up in the middle of the evening made me feel distant from the world. Reality had continued while I slept like a baby. I wouldn't be surprised if I had woken up to Earth five years later.

I rolled over to check my phone. The screen almost blinded me. The time flashed, showing that it was a little past 9 O'clock. Below that, several (hundred) messages and calls came from Tucker.

I read all the texts which turned from several attempts at saying hi to panic. I rolled my eyes at the last text, which was half an hour ago, of Tucker threatening to invade my house if I didn't answer.

I decided to call him back.

"Sam!" Tucker answered half way through the first ring. "Do you know how many times I've called? Don't pull a Danny and just ignore me!"

I really didn't want to think about Danny. If anything, I wanted him to be furthest from my mind.

"I wasn't ignoring you," I sighed while sitting up, "I was sleeping."

"Sleeping?" he sounded rather judgemental on the other side. "Who sleeps from five to nine in the afternoon?"

"I do," I said with lack of a better comeback. "What are you up to?" I mumbled while absentmindedly picking at my nail.

"Danny and I talked earlier," Tucker mentioned, answering a question I hadn't even asked.

I really wanted to try and forget Danny, even if it was for five minutes. At this time, it was as if Danny was inescapable. Oh how I really wanted to run away and hide. "Really?" I tried my hardest to sound uninterested.

"Let's hang out," Tucker suggested even though it was already almost dark.

"Fine," I said, even though I wasn't particularly in the mood to. I already knew that we would be spending our time sitting around talking about Danny. Not to mention that I'm also going to have to order two pizzas upon his unspoken request; I have to make sure I get my vegan food while he eats his "meatatarian" crap.

"Cool cause I'm down stairs," he chirped nonchalantly.

I jumped out of my bed and skidded into the hallway. Leaning over the ramp, I looked down into my living room, seeing Tucker on the couch making himself at home. He wasn't kidding about invading my house after all.

"Hi, Sam," Tucker called up to me waving.

I needed to talk to my grandma about letting strange, teenage boys into the house.

After I had hung up on Tucker, we moved our party of two to the theater room in the basement. As usual, Tucker expressed his amazement of my parents' wealth.

"You know," Tucker plopped down onto a recliner, "you have all of this nice stuff but not once have I gotten a Christmas gift over one hundo. Don't hold that allowance back on me." I rolled my eyes at him while snorting softly. I didn't bother to mention the obvious that Christmas was months away.

"Yeah and all I've gotten is a homemade card on recycled computer paper so I guess we're even," I smirked. My family didn't even celebrate Christmas, yet I still managed to participate in the holiday every year.

It wasn't long until pizza boxes were stacked up between Tucker and I. To no surprise, Tucker had easily eaten an entire pizza, and was working his way through another box. In contrast to his bottomless pit of a stomach, I had only eaten half a slice. I wasn't in the mood for food anyways. It was hard to keep down the bland taste with Danny lurking in the back of my mind.

My thumbs expertly moved over the game controllers. Tucker had brought with him another violent game. Everytime he comes over he thinks that he could bring some game I've never heard of and win. Not gonna lie, it felt good to kick his ass everytime no matter what the game was. I never wanted Tucker to forget that just because I was a girl didn't mean I couldn't beat him.

Tucker groaned once more as my character shot his down. He tossed my controller to the side in defeat. I could only smirk at his frustration.

"Ha, you suck," I rubbed in his face.

"Hey," Tucker crossed his arms, "I could be worse. I could play like Danny."

I felt the smile fade from my lips. There was an uncomfortable look in Tucker's face as the silence settled between us.

"Um Sam-"

"Don't," I cut him off, holding up a hand to quiet him. "I don't want to talk about it." I probably looked like a five year old pouting as I purposely faced only the TV and began to set up another round.

I gave Tucker an annoyed look when he responded to my actions by standing directly in front of me. "You're blocking my view," I complained while trying to look around him.

I hated when Tucker tried to act like my dad. He wanted to get serious and have a sit down talk. Tucker was never serious and I really didn't want to express my feelings, not that I had any, especially for Danny.

He placed his hands on his hips, staring me down with the same parental look my own parents gave me when I wore something different than the pink dress they suggested for me.

"What, Tucker?" I obliviously asked. My voice slipped into a moody teenager tone that I've heard several of the other girls at school use. I cringed internally. Sam, get ahold of yourself.

"We have to talk about you and Danny," Tucker simply stated.

I rolled my eyes, ignoring the ache in my chest, "There's nothing to talk about."

"But something happened between you-"

"There's nothing between us," I quickly spoke, cutting off Tucker once more.

Tucker fourrowed his eyebrows in confusion. I really didn't know what he was thinking, but I would have to guess that it was denial to my claim.

"Sam," Tucker's voice was more soft than mine. I hated when he said my name like that, it usually meant that he was concerned for me as an older relative would be for a kid that got it's head stuck in a doggy door. I would only know that after hearing Danny's mom talk to him after he _actually_ did get his head stuck in a doggy door. They don't even have a dog.

"What happened between you and Danny earlier?" Tucker pressed. I just bit my lip in silence. "Danny and I talked earlier. Something was very wrong with him, and something is wrong with you now. You guys are never like this."

I continued to choose to remain silent, even though a part of me desperately wanted to ask Tucker what exactly he and Denny had talked about. I had a good hunch that I was probably a subject of that conversation.

"I don't know how you're going to get through this if you refuse to tell Danny about your feelings," Tucker sighed.

As soon as Tucker said that, something inside of me ticked. I knew it wasn't his fault, he was just trying to help, but I am done with Danny from here on out. "I do not have feelings for what's-his-face," I snapped.

"We both know you do," Tucker deadpanned.

I stood up, feeling suddenly trapped between the chair and Tucker. "Maybe, just maybe, I had before," I spun on my heel to face Tucker, he jumped slightly, "but now, there's nothing. I have no feelings for Danny, good or bad. I feel nothing. I don't even know who he is anymore." I was out of breath from how strained my voice had become. I hadn't even realized that my fists were balled up until I released my fingers. I looked down to see several nail imprints on my palms.

I sat, or moreso fell, back into my seat. Tucker did the same thing right beside me.

"It sucks," Tucker said, staring at the screen in front of us, "but Danny is just having trouble with his emotions and all."

"What emotions? He doesn't like me and I don't get how you can't see that," I mumbled in a defeated tone.

"I don't get how you can't see that he _does_."

I didn't make a comment towards that, mostly because I was unsure of what to say. On cue, I heard Tucker's phone go off. I recognized the specialized ringtone to be for Danny. Of course it was Danny. I leaned in close to the phone, hoping to hear the other end.

" _Tucker!_ " Danny sounded out of breath. Even though it was a little past midnight, Danny was probably still out fighting ghosts. I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit bad for him, usually Tucker and I would help and end the ghost duties hours earlier.

"Yo man, what's up?" Tucker casually responded.

" _I'm sorry to do this to ya but I'm actually really backed up. Box ghost let out a few ghosts who let out other ghosts and there's just a lot here._ " I was somewhat bothered by how casual Danny had sounded. His voice wasn't cold or distant from Tucker as it had been from me.

"Say no more," Tucker quipped. I could hear the sound of Danny shooting out an ecto beam followed by a short cry.

" _You sure? If you're busy with Sam or something-_ "

"Nah, man. I'm all free." Tucker quickly mouthed an apology at me. I shot a glare at him. While I was somewhat relieved to not be mentioned, I was also insulted that I was gonna get ditched.

" _Cool!_ " Another shot could be heard. " _I'm right by the Nasty Burger!_ " Danny yelled before a click and then silence was on the line.

I looked over at my phone. Not a single call.

"'All free'?" I challenged Tucker with a raised eyebrow.

He gave me an apologetic look, "Sam I-"

I waved him off while forcing a smile. I did feel suddenly tired even though I took a heap of a nap earlier. "It's cool," I put the rest of the pizza in the basement fridge. "I'm going to sleep anyways."

"I mean you can come," Tucker suggested, even though that option wasn't considerable by either of us.

I snorted in response, "Yeah, right after Danny gives me a big ole hug."

Tucker whipped his hands onto his cargo shorts. I could see faint marks from the leftover grease. I really wanted to recommend water and soap to Tucker but I kept my mouth shut.

"I better get going," Tucker looked at his PDA, probably checking the time. "Hang out tomorrow?" Tucker asked from the base of the stairs.

I only shrugged my shoulders, not sure if I particularly wanted to. Not that I minded Tucker, but I really did want alone time. I was basically becoming my very own best friend. Tucker and Danny had each other while I had myself.

Tucker gave me a reassuring look before disappearing up the stairs. I stood there for a moment until I heard the front door shut with a bang.

The feeling of being very alone flooded through me. I wondered if it was time for me to make new friends.

I sighed before moving to clean up the area. My parents were loaded, but they never hired a maid. I didn't mind it though. A maid would make me feel like a snobbish rich kid.

I decided to hang out for a little longer in the basement. I was tired, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep for a little while.

I tuned the TV onto a generic horror channel. It was a classic movie, based on the cheesy screams and low resolution. I laughed to myself when the blonde lead tripped on the grass. The way she flailed her arms made me think that she has never actually tripped before in her life.

In a strange way, my life could be like a horror movie. It wasn't because of all the ghosts. I got used to them a long time ago, I've seen children scarier than ghosts. I was like the blonde actor from the 1970s, constantly making myself fall.

I still didn't want to think about Danny, but I was completely failing. All I could do was think about him. I wouldn't say I hated Danny, even though he was acting like a huge jerk, but I certainly was not having any pleasant thoughts about him, unless throwing a brick at his face is pleasant.

I got a headache thinking about our "talk" in the closet earlier. A part of me hoped that Danny didn't mean it. I was becoming awfully aware of how much I was pitying myself. Was I playing victim?

It was my fault to begin with. Between the two of us, I had become more of a liar. I know Tucker wanted me to tell the truth, but the truth just didn't feel like an option. I wasn't even sure what the truth was anymore. I don't have feelings for Danny, but why did I tell him I was dating Tucker? He wasn't clueless because Tucker and I were dating. Why did we even call Danny clueless in the first place? I pretended not to know.

I began picking at my nails, wishing that I had nail polish to peel off. My nails were short and chipped, something that would give Paulina a heart attack.

I wasn't focused much on the movie, I wasn't really focused on anything but mindless thoughts. I didn't look up until I heard a humming sound. It was off tune, and didn't fit in with the movie.

Narrowing my eyes, I paused the TV. Everything was silent for a second before I heard the humming once more.

I jumped up once I realized that it was coming from behind me. My eyes landed on a glowing girl with a mess of bright, red hair. I recognized her from school as the new ghost, or at least it was her first time showing herself in Amity Park.

Her skin was glowing a few tints lighter than before. Her red, curly hair seemed more wild this time around as well. She had that look ghosts got when they've seemed to become more adaptive to the environment, more powerful.

I noticed the same shift in Danny over the pest few months. As he had gotten more abilities, his hair lightened in in ghost form. His green eyes also slowly shifted from a natural green color to a more unnatural, bright green. That didn't mean that the color wasn't mesmerizing.

Serena was, strangely enough, taking a bite out of my vegan pizza. I didn't know that ghosts were vegan, or even ate at all.

"What are you doing here?" I asked slowly, thinking if I had a Fenton Ray stashed away anywhere near by. I did not.

She continued to hum to herself, almost as if she was ignoring me. I wasn't sure what to do. I recalled her being very bipolar earlier and didn't want to risk having to deal with that again.

I shifted on my feet, still waiting for a reply. The door wasn't too far away, I wondered if I could take off without disturbing her. I doubted that that was likely since she was probably more than aware of my presence.

"What are you doing here?" I asked again, making sure to keep my tone neutral.

She dropped the remaining crust into the pizza box. I hated when people did that. Not only were they wasting good bread, but they were putting their garbage food back with the good, unused slices.

A twitch of a smile played at her lips as she wiped her hands together. "I heard you and the boy talking earlier," she finally said.

"Tucker?" I wondered, not sure about how much earlier she meant.

"That weird kid with the red hat? Nah," she twisted her face slightly, almost as if the thought of him creeped her out. The idea was funny, Tucker even warning off ghost girls without trying. Tucker wasn't that bad.

"The other one," Serena tapped her hand on the counter, "the halfa."

Of course it was Danny. I really couldn't escape him. Everyone always wanted to talk about Danny. Even my own mind wouldn't shut up about him already.

"You know," Serena began to approach me, "I didn't even think of going back to my old school. Too many awful memories there, ya know? But then I heard about this halfa who was always hanging around there. Apparently a lot of people didn't like the guy, but I wanted to check it out for myself."

I slowly took steps backwards, trying to keep a consistent distance between us. I didn't want her to get too close and think to make an advance on me. Although I don't doubt that I could fight, I still didn't have a complete understanding of what her capabilities entailed.

"I watched him," Serena continued, "and too my surprise, he was a liar." She suddenly planted her feet still. I could feel something in the air shift. The way she tilted her head downwards slightly and narrowed her eyes at me made my stomach uneasy. "I hate liars."

I gulped but didn't move from my place. I wanted to hide away from her cold stare, but I knew the second I moved she would lunge for me.

"What makes you think he's a liar," I managed with an uneasy smiled.

Her nostrils flared as she huffed loudly. "He lies about who he is. He doesn't show the world that he's a ghost and he rubs it in our face that he's still alive. It's not _fair_."

I was fairly accustomed to many ghosts despising the idea of a halfa. I think most of their hatred came from the jealousy of Danny getting ghost abilities and to live in the world while continuously sending them back into the Ghost Zone whenever they came to Earth. If Danny was just a normal ghost, he would be one of the ghosts trying to come through to this life. No one would hate him then.

I held my hands up halfway in an attempt to surrender. "Danny isn't rubbing anything in your face! He's a hero! I know that there are good ones, but there's also a handful of ghosts trying to hurt people. Someone has to stop them."

Her hair flared slightly, turning into a more intense red. I had most likely offended her by saying ghost hurt people, but it was true and I wouldn't understand how she could not be aware of it.

"Ghost don't hurt people; people hurt people." Her hair almost looked as if it was burning at this point. "People are always hurting one another," Serena's voice grew louder and louder, "with their ugly lies and hypocritical actions. I hate all liars. I would do anything to get rid of liars and this town is full of them."

I began to cautiously take more steps back, as I distanced myself from Serena, I also began to distance myself from my only exit. I felt like now would be a good time for Phantom to come flying through the ceiling, at the same time I didn't want him too.

She gave me a crooked smile, which made her seem somewhat intimidating. "You're one of them," she spat. "I knew it, from the way you continuously lied to the halfa. I saw all of it and you guys didn't even suspect a thing."

I wondered what she had meant by all of it. Did she hear the _big_ lie I told Danny? Danny's ghost sense should've gone off if she was around for that.

Serena made me nervous. What did the ghost girl have against lies? I recalled how she made people speak the truth, even when they weren't speaking in the first place. So this ghost fed off of people telling the truth, right?

"Oh yeah?" I challenged, feeling a sudden wind of confidence. "If you're so sure about that then what did I lie about?"

"You told him you were in a relationship, with _his_ best friend." Serena made a pfft sound while rolling her eyes, "What a cliche."

I took a step forward towards the ghost, she didn't scare me as much as I thought she did. "And how do I know that you aren't the liar here?"

"I can't lie," she said in a higher tone. I could tell she felt superior to me because of that. As much as the schools teach you that honesty is the best policy, I could tend to disagree. In my eyes, this girl just gave me a weakness.

I could totally fight this ghost without Danny, or his stupidly useful wristray. "Okay, Serena," I began, forming a plan in my mind to get her out of my house, "what happens if I lie?"

She narrowed her eyes at me as he hair flared up once more. Maybe it wasn't good for me to be so blunt about the question, I still doubted that she would catch onto the idea that I was possibly up to something. "It doesn't matter what happens," she began floating up from the ground, "either way I've collected enough truths to take out every liar in this town!" She paused for a moment, staring me directly in the eyes, "Starting with you," she added.

Before I could even blink, she motioned her hand towards me. I felt an invisible force hit me in the gut, sending me stumbling into the wall behind me. After continuously getting tossed around by ghosts, this didn't hurt me.

If every truth made her stronger, then a lie weakens her, right? The only problem with that logic is that she could also force people to tell the truth, giving her an unlimited supply of power. I still decided to go for my odds.

"My favorite color is pink!" I stated a pretty obvious lie. I noticed how she let an expression of being taken off guard slip. While the change in her confidence was obvious, she didn't seem to have lost any power in her ghost abilities.

Serena flung her arm in the opposite direction, sending me falling over the chairs. I landed awkwardly onto them in a position that didn't feel too nice, despite the furniture being cushion.

Maybe I needed a bigger lie. "I never cheated on a test!" I admitted, feeling guilty. It was fifth grade and I forgot how to spell hippopotamus for the bonus on the spelling test. I just remember that eating away at me for awhile and whenever anyone asked, I had never cheated.

To my advantage, her red hair dimmed enough to seem more like a natural, unghostly color. I took my chance to jump up and pull her down to the floor with me. She landed on her back with a huff. That angered her. She became even more frustrated when I held her down by sitting on top of her.

All girls fight the same way when it really came down to it. I was completely expecting the way she tried to claw my eyes out, a similar method Paulina had used on me before. It was easy to block and didn't affect me one bit.

Before I could get a clean punch in, a flash came through the room and pulled Serena out from underneath me. I rolled over from the impact. When I was able to sit up, I was not surprised to see Phantom now in action fighting the ghost.

A part of me was annoyed. I wanted to handle her myself. I felt independent from Danny, I didn't need him. The very thought made something inside me twist.

I only glared at Danny while he seemed to not spare a single glance in my direction.

He grabbed hold of Serena's shoulders and phased her through the walls. I jumped up to my feet and ran up the stairs. I assumed he had taken her outside of my house, not wanting to bring attention to the fight. It would be pretty bad if my parents had woken up to a ghost battle.

I ran outside. It was dark save for the street lights and two glowing apparitions. Serena began to dodge all of Danny's attacks by a hair. They were too high up in the air for me to be able to hear the banter going back and forth. I noticed as the two continued to talk, Serena became stronger and stronger. She was using her powers on Danny.

I glanced around for a sight of Tucker. Looking down the street, I could see him slowly making his way towards my house with the Fenton Thermos held over his head. Tucker looked like he was about to pass out from lack of oxygen.

The second he was in arm's reach I snatched the Fenton Thermos from him. It would be better for Tucker to be relieved of his duties, temporarily. I also decided that it would be good to put my anger aside momentarily and help Danny, not that he deserved it.

"Danny!" I yelled up at him. He only glanced down at me for a moment, which resulted in Serena taking her chance to strike him while he was distracted.

Danny flew back and into the brick wall of a building before landing roughly on the sidewalk.

My instincts kicked in as I ran to his side. "Are you alright?" I quickly asked.

"Yeah," he grunted while shooting a glare at me. Of course he would blame me for this. I stuffed my annoyed feeling down. We needed to deal with the ghost first.

I looked over the way he was rubbing the back of his head. Save for a few scratches, there weren't any open wounds.

Before I could tell him my strategy, Serena had already disappeared. There goes that plan.

Danny groaned when he noticed Serena was gone. "You let her get away," he snapped.

Any kind of concern in my vanished. My jaw dropped in utter shock. A voice in my head told me to ignore it, but I thought of something else. "Me?" I crossed my arms over my chest, "I was actually doing fine on my own before you came along."

"Oh really?" Danny asked, although it sounded more like doubt. "By sitting on them? Is that what you call defeating a ghost?" I didn't exactly appreciate the way his voice had began to grow more stern and loud.

"Well sorry," I said sarcastically, "I wasn't trying to play victim." I was sure to keep my stare cold and hard on Danny. His angry facial features seemed to falter at my reference to our argument from earlier.

Silence flooded the air. Even Tucker didn't say a thing. I could practically feel him hovering over my shoulder. I know Tucker had not done anything wrong, but I was irritated by his presence. It made me feel guilty but not enough to distract me from my anger towards Danny.

I took a moment to see if Danny would speak up. Although his anger had faded slightly, it was clear that he wasn't going to apologise, and neither was I.

"I'm going inside," I muttered. I tossed the thermos onto the ground. It clattered against the cold cement right by his side.

Once again I was walking away from Danny without looking back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed or followed so far! Your input helps me know how my story is coming along, which I'm very grateful for! This chapter is about a thousand words shorter than my usual chapters, but I felt as if it was a good spot to end. Thank you again for the support and happy readings!**

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The rest of my weekend was spent alone. Other than the occasional texts from Tucker, I was disconnected from the outside world. I had thought that being alone would lead to my own brain eating me alive, but instead it was quite the opposite. Thoughts of Danny became less frequent as I relaxed into several goth books. My favorite was the one where the girl who could turn into a spider at will got stepped on by a heavy boot.

Monday morning came fast, to my ultimate displeasure. I tried to pretend like I didn't have to go to school until my mother threw open my black curtains.

I was hoping that my mother would pity me and let me actually skip school. My parents did check on me a _few_ times throughout Saturday and Sunday. No shock, neither of them noticed that I was somewhat of an emotional wreck. I understand that teenagers could get moody and all, but they really shouldn't pass off everytime I get upset as some type of "gothic" personality.

I groaned and buried my head further into my pillow.

"Samantha Manson," I shuddered at the sound of my full name, "if you don't get up right now I'll have no choice but to have the limo take you to school so you won't be late."

Curse that woman. If there's one thing I could give my mother credit for is that she knew how to motivate me to do what she wants. Don't get me wrong, I'm still rebellious towards my parents, but I'm even more rebellious towards publically showing my wealth.

I rolled over in my bed, showing my mother that I was conscious. I waited for her to leave the room before getting out from under the covers. The air was cold, making me want to crawl back into the warm blankets. I fought the urge and continued with my daily routine.

Even though I had gotten plenty of sleep, I still felt exhausted. I almost fell over while I simultaneously worked on pulling up my thigh high, purple stockings and keeping both of my eyes open.

I looked into my mirror after I pulled my tank top over my head. My hair was a mess. Stray ends curled into different direction. A layer of frizz coated my entire scalp. A dark shadow rimmed underneath my eyes. It was safe to say that I looked like a mess.

I ran a brush through my hair. I winced slightly at the tug when the brustles pulled on my strands. A brushed back a few locks of hair and tied them together on the top of my head.

I then put on the same lilac lipstick as I had worn everyday. I was never good with makeup. I didn't put it on because I cared about how pretty others thought of me. I yet somehow felt more confident with purple lips.

As I spun around to leave my room, my shin collided directly with the edge of my desk. I shouted many curses, hopefully my family did not hear me.

I rubbed the already forming bruise. I inhaled sharply, and slowly let my breath out from my lips. I could already tell that this was how the rest of my day was going to go.

I walked, or half jogged, my way to school.

I pulled out my phone. No messages from Danny, not that I was expecting any. Tucker didn't even give me any updates concerning him either. I was about to message Tucker but decided against it since I was going to be seeing him at school anyways.

Something felt off when I opened the doors to Casper High. Along with the usual cluster in the hallways, I felt as if every single person I passed looked at me. Some glances were quicker than others, but no one outright stared at me. Despite my individuality as a goth, people still didn't pay much mind to me.

I ignored the looks and continued to my locker. I was probably just being paranoid. I knew I was just stressing myself out. I could physically feel any relaxed thoughts in my mind slip away.

I sighed to myself as I slammed my locker door shut. I jumped when Valerie had suddenly appeared at my side. She must've been standing behind the door. It was kind of creepy if she had just been standing there waiting for me to close the door.

"Um hi," I said. Valerie had never really approached me before, unless she wanted to know where Danny was.

The girl didn't look happy. Her eyes were narrowed at me as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I heard you and Danny were fighting," she stated, as if it was her business. I wonder what Danny had told her.

"What's it to ya?" I responded. I wasn't sure where Valerie wanted to go with this conversation, but I definitely was not in the mood for a lecture and from her of all people.

Valerie wasn't that bad of a person, but I still remembered the ways she had treated both Tucker and Danny before she became broke. I understand that people change, but she had used my best friends when it was convenient for her whereas I had been by Danny's- and Tucker's- side since elementary school. It was not in her place to lecture me on how I handle my friends.

I noticed a twitch of a smile in her face. "Oh nothing really," her voice rising a little as she spoke.

Valerie was already getting on my nerves. "What?" I pressed. Valerie shrugged her shoulders and turned to go the other way. I quickly moved to her side. "Did Danny tell you something?" I almost growled his name.

Valerie gave me a sideways look, "Yes he did, actually."

"Care to share?"

"You started dating his best friend."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, squeezing my eyes shut. I wonder if I wished hard enough that she would disappear. "And what does this have to do with you?" I asked Valerie, hoping she would take the hint and drop the subject. Hopefully even stay out of all of our lives.

"Well," she paused for a moment, "I guess it is my concern since Danny and I are- well we're…"

Her voice trailed off and I feared that she would say the one thing I didn't want her and Danny to be. "You and Danny are what?" I pressed.

Valerie ignored my question. "The point is, don't you think it's kind of low to date his best friend?"

"You don't know anything," I snarled at her. "You don't know anything about me or my relations. It's none of your business."

Valerie smirked at me. I hated that look girls got. It meant that they were planning. Valerie wasn't a bad person, but I could very well imagine her causing more trouble in my life, intentional or not.

"Maybe it's not," she shrugged. Valerie spun on her heels. I flinched back to avoid being whipped by her thick hair. "Bit of advice," she called over her shoulder to me as she walked down the hallway, "I would get my story straight before the entire school hears."

I didn't bother responding before she disappeared into the swarm of students. I hadn't even been to my first class and I was already as annoyed as it was. Anymore time spent talking to Valerie and my head will explode.

I glared at a couple who whispered and pointed at me as they passed.

Someone has been talking, someone as in Danny. On one hand, I didn't want to see Danny whatsoever, but on the other part of me wanted to talk to him. This has been the longest I had gone without speaking to him since we've met. I wouldn't be surprised if I started showing withdrawal symptoms.

No one was in the first class except for Tucker. He was typing away on his phone. I tried to hover over him and read the screen but his shoulder was blocking the majority of my view.

As soon as my friend noticed me he shut his phone right away. I eyed him suspiciously but didn't mention it.

"How was the rest of your weekend?" I asked, knowing that he probably spent it with Danny. I'm not gonna lie, it stung like a bitch that they were already getting along together while I was the lesser friend to either of them. I always figured that Tucker and Danny were closer than I was with either of them, but I didn't like being blocked out from Danny while he forgave Tucker for the same reason he was mad at me for.

"It was alright," he shrugged. Tucker paused for a moment before glancing over at me with that long concerned stare. I still hated that look, even if it meant he cared. Listen to me, my own brain is becoming all mushy and emotional.

Before I could stop myself I blurted, "I miss Danny." I could feel Tucker's eyes bore into the side of my head. I just stared down at my fingers, picking at my nail polish.

"Things will get better, Sam," Tucker sighed.

I smiled back at him. "I know they will," I tried to reassure myself. I chewed on the inside of my cheek. I really did just want to get all of this over with, even if it was initially my fault.

"I think," Tucker said slowly, as if he was afraid of me, "maybe you should just apologize to Danny."

I'll admit, I'm at fault for a lot of things, but Danny is too. I clenched my fists tightly, thinking about how he's shut me out. After a moment I slowly released them. That is what I am at fault for. I lied to him. He could've been less of a jerk about the whole situation, but when it comes down to it, everything started because I couldn't tell Danny the truth.

First things first, I have to stop lying to myself. The only reason that I am so torn over this is maybe because I do like Danny. I'm not over him just yet either. Also, it is completely infuriating how Valerie, of all people, is speaking to Danny while he won't even look at me.

"Tucker," I started with his name, something that I hated when people did to me, "do you know why Danny is really mad at me?"

He rolled his eyes at me, with a mile spreading across his face. "Of course I do," he was using his darned superior voice. "I've been trying to tell you the entire time, Sam. Danny _likes_ you."

It was weird hearing those words out loud without me instantly denying them afterwards. "Has he ever actually said it though?" I had to be sure.

"Kinda," Tucker shrugged, "but it's obvious."

Valerie was still on my mind. She was with Danny a lot, even though they had ended what never was. It was obvious that they were flirting, just by the look of admiration Danny would always give her. He never gave me that look, or at least not that I know of. "What about Valerie?"

Tucker grabbed me by the shoulders. "What about Valerie?!" Tucker repeated with a different meaning. He began to shake me, as if he was literally shaking some sense into me. "You're Sam Manson! The edgy, ultra-recyclo-whatever"- vegetarian- "goth that's always been by Danny's side. These girls come and go but you're the one who's stayed no matter what. You're supposed to be smart but if you truly can't see that Danny likes you, then you might as well drop out now."

I looked towards the door. Danny had walked in at that moment, alone. He took a seat not on the opposite side of the room, but not quite next to me or Tucker.

I was tired of lying so much. Being bipolar and in denial took so much more work than necessary. "Lunch," I decided, "I'll apologize to him at lunch."

Tucker's grin brightened. He went back to playing on his gadget, satisfied. I, on the other hand, felt an unnerving feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.

Before I went to hunt down Danny during lunchtime, I decided to stop by the bathroom. I don't know why I did it, I didn't even have to pee or anything like that.

I never went in the school bathrooms anymore, unless I absolutely had to for the sake of puberty. I recall getting shoved into the wall by Paulina one time because I was taking up too much "background space" in the mirror while she was touching up her makeup. Another time, a group of girls turned off the lights and locked me in there. They weren't pretty smart since I just turned the lights back on and climbed out the window, but still, it sucked.

So since those incidents I've decided to swear off all forms of education facilities' public restrooms. They were never worth it. But now, I've broken my own safety rule and stood in the bathroom. No one else was in there, thank the guns of Plasmius.

I stood in front of the mirror, slowly looking myself up and down, particularly my face. I'd start at the top of my head, where my black ponytail was. I briefly looked at my bangs and how they hung over my forehead. I've thought about investing in a headband before, Valerie has one. My parents would be happy that I finally moved my hair out of my face. Then again, headbands are tacky.

My eyes then made contact with themselves through the reflection. I hadn't noticed much before, but they were kinda cool. It wasn't every day that you saw a girl with purple eyes. When I was younger, other kids would make fun of me. They'd call me a freak or an alien. Now, I'd embrace it, but back then it had bothered me so much. I don't even know why. I hated thinking of my younger self, who cared so much of what everyone thought.

I couldn't stop thinking about Danny as well. Maybe I cared about what he thought. That's weird. Danny Fenton, of all people, would be the one to make me check myself in the mirror.

I grimaced at myself. The rest of my face was pretty plain. My nose didn't stand out, nor did my lips or chin. Did anyone even care about what a chin looked like? I subconsciously rubbed my chin.

I couldn't stand to look in the mirror anymore. I inhaled deeply, closing my eyes.

I ducked out of the bathroom before anyone else could come in. I didn't want to risk being cornered in.

I took my time wandering through the halls, even though I knew exactly where I was going. I didn't know what I was going to say to Danny. I was not planning on confessing some undeniable love for him, that wasn't me.

I figured that I wouldn't overthink it too much. One thing I had to get across was that Tucker and I were not dating. Based on my conversation with Valerie earlier, I'm pretty that someone had heard the completely false rumor. I didn't want to think of where it came from, but I had a feeling Danny couldn't help but tell that certain girl.

I cut that thought from my head. I was not going to get mad at Danny once again. I was just going to apologize and clear the air.

Even though my heart was racing by the time I reached the cafeteria, I felt confident. Nervous, but confident. Was that even possible?

I scoped Danny out through the lunch tables, but I didn't see him at any of them. I stepped outside to look through the picnic tables. Again, I did not see Danny.

I decided to round the outside of the building before I could make the decision to go back inside. I heard a couple of voices around the corner on the side of the building not many people came from. Right away a recognized one of them as Danny's, even though I couldn't understand what exactly he and the other person were saying.

Remember how I said I was confident? I don't. All of that was erased from existence when I saw Danny Freakin Phantom sitting down and talking to Valerie Freakin Gray.

Let me clarify something: Danny _Phantom_ , white haired dead boy, was sitting with Valerie, white haired dead boy hunter. They hated each other.

Now, the two sat side by side, leaning up against the brick wall of the building. What really killed me, other than how content the two looked with each other, was how her hand rested casually on his knee.

I was suddenly embarrassed for walking in on the two, even though neither of them noticed me. I was in a spot that I wasn't't welcomed to. I was an intruder. I spun on my heels, and walked away as fast as I could.

Something wasn't right there. It was supposed to be Danny, Tucker and I disconnected from the rest of the world, especially when he was in ghost form. The three of us together. Not the two of them.

As I walked back through the picnic table and the cafeteria, I noticed that I was the only person walking without a friend. I felt very lonely. It sucked. I didn't want to be alone, I wanted to find Tucker.

I felt real sore about myself as I left the lunch room. I was so wrong about everything. Even if I did apologize to Danny, we would never be close again. Phantom had Valerie just as much as Fenton did now. Me? I'm just the friend. It was dumb to even have hope that Danny would possibly like me. My eyes aren't that special.

The classrooms passed me like a blur. I was only looking for the computer lab, that's the only other place I could think for Tucker to be.

When I turned into the room, I spotted Tucker in the back. He was sitting with Mikey, gushing over whatever was on the screen. Nerds of a feather flock together.

I walked up behind the two. Tucker spotted me first. I faked a smile at him, even though he could see right through it. "Hi, Sam," he looked at me concerned.

"Bye, Mikey," I said in a sickly sweet tone. Mikey pushed his glasses up higher on his nose. I watched as he scurried out of his seat and from the room. I've never done anything to the kid before, but for some reason he found me intimidating.

The second Tucker and I were alone, something inside of me snapped. I couldn't help but suddenly let go of the self control that I've been holding onto. This was really going to hurt my pride.

I brought my hands up to my face the second my vision went blurry with tears. My lips pressed tightly together, preventing any whimpers from coming out. I didn't like the feeling of the uncontrollable quiver of my bottom lip.

"Sam," the sound of Tucker's voice only made more tears rush from my eyes. I felt like a broken sink, leaking all over the place. That sounded kinda gross.

Tucker grabbed my wrists, pulling my hands away from my face. I straightened my head up to look at him. Tucker's eyes were wide. Between our moment of silence, save for my sniffling, I heard him gulp unsurely.

Tucker had never seen me cry before. I guess there's a first time for everything. I must've looked ridiculous to him, based on how surprised his stare was.

I leaned forward to place my forehead on his shoulder. Tucker awkwardly patted the back of my head, as if I was a dog. I'm very aware that my techno geek friend isn't the best when it comes to comforting people.

"Sam," he repeated, "what happened? Did you talk to Danny?"

My chest ached at the sound of his name. I only shook my head.

Tucker pulled me back my the shoulders. He didn't move his grip as he looked me in the eyes with his brows furrowed. "You didn't? I thought that's what you went to do."

I shook my head again. "I looked for him," I forced out. It was hard to breathe, making it harder to speak. I don't know why crying took the breath out of me. "Phantom," my voice broke on the last syllable.

Tucker twitched slightly at this. "What about Phantom?" he pressed. I'm somewhat impressed that Tucker wasn't impatient with me, yet.

I gulped deeply. Still crying, I mustered up enough to speak more than a couple words. "I saw him, as Phantom," my voice was at least two octaves higher, on the verge of breaking again. "I don't know why he was like that, but then he was with Valerie. _Valerie_. Normal Valerie too, not the geared up, psychopathic, ghost hunter version." A new flow of tears ran down my cheeks. What I hated about crying was that once you started, you couldn't just flip a switch and stop when you wanted to.

Tucker finally retracted his hands from me, "Valerie?" I nodded my head slowly. "That makes no sense," Tucker said out loud, trying to straighten out his thoughts. "Danny wouldn't tell anyone about Phantom, even Jazz. Valerie hates phantom, too. That doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah well I saw the two cuddling up a storm," I said almost bitterly. "They were sitting practically on top of one another, and her hand was just on his knee," maybe I was exaggerating a bit. The knee thing didn't sound like such a big deal when I said it out loud but it still stung to think about.

"That doesn't make any sense," Tucker distantly repeated.

"And to think I was going to apologize to him," I laughed humorlessly. I felt ridiculous, crying while talking about a boy. I really have fallen. "I thought that I would just tell him the truth and forget all of the crap that happened since last week."

Tucker opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off, "Then maybe something good could've happened." I now understood that whole word vomit thing, gross. Really though, I couldn't shut up. "Maybe he would've stopped talking to Valerie. Maybe he would stop being so clueless and see me, you know?"

"Sam-"

"Everything could go back to normal, except be better, no, more than better. All those tauntings of Danny and his goth-freak girl wouldn't be so much a joke anymore."

"Sam-"

"Neither of us would care about them either because we would be happy. I should've apologized earlier. I shouldn't have lied. I could've said sorry and told Danny that I-"

"Sam!" Tucker yelled in my face.

I had to stop ignoring him repeatedly saying my name over and over. "What?" I wondered, not understand what was so important.

Tucker didn't say anything then. He kept glancing frantically between me and something over my shoulder. I turned around to face the front of the room and where the doorway was. My eyes widened when I saw Danny leaning against the frame with an unreadable expression. His eyes were clouded over and mouth wasn't turned in a smile or a frown.

To my horror, it had to be Danny of all people. Had he seen me earlier and followed me here? I didn't know how much he had heard nor did I want to know. Danny wouldn't move from his place. No one uttered a word.

I finally looked down towards my hands, not bearing to look at him any more. "Go away," I muttered, my voice breaking. It was like rubbing salt on my wounds. I didn't want Danny to know that I was crying over him, even though it was as obvious as it would be if I held up a big sign stating so.

I looked up again, to find that Danny was gone. I sighed in relief. Tucker, my dear, emotionally awkward friend held out his arm. I leaned into him, crying on his shoulder. I felt thankful for Tucker.

"How much did he hear?" my words were muffled by the fabric of his shirt.

"Everything after 'clueless'," Tucker stated as a matter of fact. He didn't sound anywhere near as upset as I was.

"Do you think he knows?" I pulled away from Tucker to look at him. Danny had Valerie, I didn't want him to know now. It was too late now. Him knowing would just make things even more complicated, if that was even possible.

Tucker cracked a grin at me, "He's clueless right?" What a wise guy.


	5. Chapter 5

**I just wanted to thank you guys bunches for the support! Your comments have been so uplifting. (Please don't die! hey thats me)**

 **I really do love writing this story, Sam's point of view is one of my favorites. I try to update at least twice a month cause I'm constantly writing like a madman but I'm also writing another story so I keep switching between writing chapters. For my other story I had a bit of writer's block with getting through the chapter which delayed to updating of that story and then delayed this one so I'm sorrrrrry if it ever seems like a long wait... If this even made any sense.**

 **ANYWAYS, thank you for all of the reviews, favorites and follows so far! Feel free to help supporting me by commenting! I would really like to know what you guys think! Enjoy:)**

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If I were to ever audition as an actress, I'm sure I'd be Grammy quality. Faking illness is truly an art that I have come to master.

I knew that one mental breakdown for the day was enough to send me home. Of course my parents wouldn't agree so I had to take certain precautions. Never underestimate how disgusting the cafeteria food is. I just threw a glob of whatever mush onto the floor of the hallway and told Lancer I vomited. Bonus: the janitor was on break so he also had to mop it up.

With a glare he told me to take myself to the office and explain the situation to the secretary. That woman couldn't have cared less about my health. It took some convincing before she called my own parents. To my utter disappointment, they were sending the limo. At least by this time most kids were already in their respective classes.

Only two types of kids hung out in the office: sick ones and those who waited to see the principal. You never saw the principal over good grades. Currently, Dash Baxter sat in a chair, lounged back. He had a smug smile on his face. I could tell he wasn't sorry for whatever mayhem he had cause, on top of that he was probably gonna get away with it. It's a shame how prized a big muscle is over an individual mind.

I had told Tucker that I was leaving, I couldn't bear to see Danny again today. He had seen me cry to my utter horror. It's truly embarrassing considering I usually keep control over my sadness. I was feeling depressed as heck. Usually this feeling was suppressed or vented out in anger like any other teenager with emotional issues.

"Hey," Dash called out for my attention. My head snapped in his direction before I could duck out of the room. I was so close to getting to the exit unnoticed.

"What?" My voice was more bitter than I had intended for it to sound. I really did not have the energy to deal with the bully. I didn't hate Dash, but he definitely wasn't someone who I considered to be on my good side, and I'm sure he felt that same way.

Dash raised a thick brow, "You and Foley? Is that really a thing?"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Not really," I wondered if I told Dash it wasn't true then maybe he could spread the word fast.

He shrugged, "That's not what Paulina told me." I don't get why he would make it seem as if Paulina knew what she was talking about in _my_ life. "Besides," Dash included after a moment, "I was kinda rooting for you and Fenton, but whatever."

I openly gaped at Dash. Did he really just say that? I knew he always made fun of us as if we were in love, but never had he actually shown any genuine support in us being a couple.

I didn't say anything other than a stuttered noise. I was unsure of how to respond. I just nodded my head before speed walking back into the hallway. I really couldn't get out of that school any faster.

I waited on the front steps of Casper High. My mind wouldn't let go of Danny's and Dash's comments. I was still in shock that he had seen my cry. It could've been anyone but it had to be Danny.

I humorlessly snorted to myself. I felt pathetic, sitting here alone.

"What's so funny?" I heard a voice come from my right. I jumped to see a certain ghost sitting so close to my side that our shoulders almost bumped. I hadn't even felt her presence.

"What do you want?" I grumbled. I was not in any mood to deal with ghosts.

Serena smirked, "I just noticed that you've been having a rough day."

It was just this past weekend that the girl was fighting me. She claimed how she wanted to get rid of all liars, including myself, so now why was she sitting here with me? I wasn't going to fall for her friendly demeanor.

I snorted, "Yeah, I guess you could say that." I wasn't too interested in where she was trying to go with this conversation.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see her red hair flare up before dying down.

"You know," Serena hugged her knees before staring ahead at the street, "it's been awhile since I've sat on these steps alone, just like you."

I spun my head to look at Serena in shock. When my eyes focused on the spot, the ghost was nowhere to be seen.

I wondered what the ghost had meant about being on the same steps. It struck me that Serena may have been a student at Casper had already dealt with one ex student of this place before.

I looked back to the front street to see that the limo had parked. That was probably the reason for her sudden disappearance.

With a heavy sigh, I trudged my way to the vehicle. The driver, Hank, opened the rear door with a subtle smile on his face.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Manson," he nodded his head to me.

I flashed back a smile at him. We had only met on rare occasions, since I was against using the limo. I couldn't help but wonder why my family didn't have any normal, less obvious cars.

The limo only seemed to amplify my unbearable loneliness. The darkness was comforting, but I was surrounded by so many empty seats. A wall separated me from the shotgun, preventing me from hearing any commotion that could possibly be going on in the front.

I didn't feel like going home. Laying alone in bed for the rest of the day wasn't appealing in the slightest.

With a sudden idea, I awkwardly slid as close to the dividing wall as I could. I leaned over to push a button to roll down the wall.

Hank gave me a shocked look in the mirror. "Um is there something you need, Ms. Manson?" he warily asked me.

Something I hated about being wealthy: so many of the other rich kids were snobs, I like to think about myself as being different. That problem with that is that it left all of our workers on edge around me. I wasn't aware of how my parents treated the people they hired but I hoped that they were nice enough.

"Actually yes," I forced a smile, hoping to not make the older man any more nervous. "I was wondering if we could make a stop. I need to do some research." And with that, Hank turned the car towards the public library.

I usually went to my goth bookstore if I ever wanted to research ghosts, but the public library kept all of the city's records. If Serena was honest about her name, then there is a chance that I could find her.

We rolled up in front of the large brick building. Not to my surprise, the front appeared to be a ghost town. Ha! Get it? _Ghost_ town. Jeez that's something Danny would say…

I told Hank that he could take a cruise around the town or go to lunch, considering I didn't know how long I would be. He happily obliged with a tilt of his hat before driving away.

The staircase leading up to the front doors circled the entire front of the building. The brick walls were old and damp, as if they had been standing there for centuries. The glass doors gave me a sneak peek of the interior.

The moment I stepped inside I could hear a phone ringing. The librarian behind the front desk ignored it. Instead she was completely wrapped up in a small, cheap desk television.

I didn't bother asking her for help, not that she would care anyways. I calmly walked past her to the back of the library.

There was an entire aisle dedicated to the history of Amity Park. Almost every book was dusted over. With today's technology, every just did a quick search on the internet if they needed information. Although, the history of our infamous town was more difficult to locate over wifi.

There was a certain section lined with the dozens of yearbooks published over time. I cringed thinking about how my horrid school photos would forever be kept here.

Just for the heck of it, I decided to pick up the latest book on the shelf. It was the one from last year. I could clearly remember the way my mom had tried to parent pressure me into wearing some god awful yellow blouse. I gave in so that she would quiet but then pulled on a black sweater over it the second I was out of her sight. It didn't matter what I wore, my picture still sucked.

I looked over Tucker's picture. I couldn't help but smirk when I noticed how much his picture stood out compared to the rest. He was in a half sneeze with snot spraying about. Danny and I couldn't stop laughing because Tucker had begged the photographer to retake his picture, but the guy couldn't care less about how bad the picture was. Tucker didn't let the incident go for a whole week.

I glanced at Danny's picture, I couldn't help myself. I would say out of the three of us, Danny had the best one. He looked like his usual self with a dopey smile and all.

My head began to hurt when I recalled seeing him earlier with Valerie. I felt like crying again, even though I knew I couldn't from the humiliation of already doing it in public earlier.

I boredly flipped through the rest of the pages. In the "Best Athlete" box was a picture of Dash in mid throw of a football. Devil horns and a tail were drawn on in permanent marker. Had Tucker or Danny been here already?

To no surprise, Paulina won the best in several additional categories such as hair, smile and friend. I snorted at the last one. She also won most made me question why my school thought it would be a good idea to promote cliques and the importance of having more followers than everyone else.

I grabbed a stack of yearbooks from the shelf. I first started in the 80s, looking through what felt like hundreds of pages for Serena Valentine. I had to guess that based on her cheesy sweater that she was from some time before 2000.

It felt like forever before I caught a small glimpse of her in one of the pictures. It was the year 1989 and she was in the freshman section. Her hair was a more natural color of red. It had an orangish glow from the flash of the camera. Her skin also wasn't as pale, it was more sandy. She appeared lively and the smile seemed genuine.

As I looked through the other pictures, I didn't see her again. She wasn't in any clubs or sports. Her face didn't appear as the winner of best anything, not that it was common anyways. There was no clue as to who she was.

I pulled out the book from the following year. At this point I would suspect her to be a sophomore. I found her picture again. She looked the same save for a small amount of makeup added to her face and an extra inch of hair.

As I went through the rest of the book, she had appeared again two times. She stood in the back of the picture for the debate team. I could barely see her face in the window between two taller kids in front of her. She then won best hair. The featured picture only accented the perfectly messed hair with her curls brought over her shoulders.

She was already in the yearbook more often than I was. Her natural look stood out. I thought that I stood out but I still failed to catch enough attention to appear more than once in the yearbook, not that I was even attention seeking. One year they even forgot to include my picture in it. Serena was pretty though.

There was a dramatic change into Serena's junior year. She was featured even more than Paulina was in ours. She now stood in the center of the debate team photo and several other clubs. She was also now captain of the volleyball team as she stood in the middle of that picture holding the ball.

In addition to winning best hair, she now seemed to hold the title for best smile, most likely to become famous, most likely to become a rocket scientist, most popular, and cutest couple.

The cutest couple caught my attention. The boy in her photo had a very toothy grin. Although his teeth weren't straight, he was still attractive in the black and white photo. His lighter hair was brushed to the side, covering half his forehead. I noted that he was also wearing a letterman's jacket.

Underneath their picture was both of their names. _Serena Valentine & Jack Harper._ I quickly flipped back to the sports photos, seeing him as the head of the football team.

The last thing I saw was a page dedicated to Serena as the class president. She was already leader of the student body, smart, and popular. I hated to admit it but I was slightly jealous of her amount of success, even though she's now dead.

When I was done stalking that yearbook, I moved onto the year 1992, which would be her senior year. The strange thing was that I didn't find her picture in the class. I flipped back to the junior class in case if she had been held back.

My first conclusion was that she transferred. It was a common thing for people to switch schools.

I went through the rest of the book, just in case they forgot to put her in as they had done to me before. She wasn't the winner of any best done catagories. She also wasn't a most likely to anything.

I skimmed the following pages. Nothing stuck out as interesting to me. I almost boredly closed the book until a certain page caught my attention.

Another entire page was dedicated to Serena, but for a completely different reason. In bolded letters the words "In loving memory…" headlined the page. There was nothing else but her name.

I looked at the back of the page just to see that the final side was another dedication to the new president. It kinda hurt how easily the book seemed to move on from the sad topic, although it was thoughtful enough to give her her own page. I don't think a page in the yearbook could make up for a death.

I furrowed my eyebrows. She had gone from popular student to loving memory in the span of one year. I wondered what could've happened in that time. It must've been a freak accident. At least I knew now that Serena did attend Casper High, even though it was over a decade ago.

I stuffed the four useful books into my backpack. The librarian wouldn't notice if I borrowed them without officially signing out. I had lost my card months ago and really couldn't bother to go through the process of creating another. Plus, I heard they started a one dollar charging fee.

I put the other books away before making my way further down to the newspaper section. The shelves were organized into years. Not every newspaper was kept here, but the ones deemed important enough from 1960-2000 had remained on these shelves for eternity. The older ones were yellowed and crumbled, I was surprised that they haven't fallen apart yet.

I went between the two years of 1991 and 1992. Sometime between these two years Serena had died. If I were to figure out why, maybe I'd be able to bring her closure. I could have her turn a new leaf, go back to the Ghost Zone, and do this all without the help of Danny.

I really was trying not to think of Danny, but his name always managed to creep its way through my thoughts. If I could go the rest of the day without thinking of Danny, that would be just great.

Most of the headlines were of football games or dog heroes. I guess the world then didn't have so much negativity. Not that many people read the newspaper, but most of the headliners were of ghost attacks. If often forget that it was only a few years that ghost have been a large problem to our town. It's annoying, but it also has become a huge part of our lives. It would be strange if we lived… normal.

It wasn't until mid November of 1991 that I found a title dealing with death: "Star Student Commits Suicide!" It was depressing for the front page. I wondered how slow the day was for this to make it. Not to be heartless but rarely did average people get their own mention beyond an obituary.

Looking at the large picture below, I knew right away that it was Serena. My heart sank a little for the passed teen girl. I never thought much of it before, but most of the ghosts we deal with are young. Unless if all of them reverted back to a younger form, that would mean that they had also died young. I couldn't help but frown at the statement.

There were only a few ghosts that I actually knew of their previous lives, but during their times it was more common to die young such as Princess Dorothea.

I read over the page that gave a description of her family life. She had two parents and a younger sister. A couple paragraphs described how well of a student she was and a couple quotes from her teachers and peers on how much they'll miss her.

I wondered on how well this paper captured who Serena was. Whenever my parents talked about me over the phone, they were always sure to leave out certain details about myself to hide my true gothic nature.

Finally, the newspaper began to describe her death. It didn't go into too deep of gory details that I was used to from other books I have read. Her body was found at the edge of a cliff just outside of town.

I knew exactly where they were talking about after Tucker, Danny, and I had visited the steep rocks many times before in battle. That place was also known as a spot for many teenagers to hook up or other illegal things.

The paper described how no third party foul play was discovered, so it was left at a suicide. I began to wonder why Serena would end it like that. Although there was always the possibility she could've tripped, star students could also easily hide depression. There was also the possibility that she was pushed and the person just so happened to get away.

It was also quite possible that the information behind why she had jumped were just kept private. This was good enough of a lead to start with.

Most ghosts have an "obsession" from which they feed their abilities from. Serena's was, at this point, obviously lies. I recall how she got powerful enough to the point of forcing people to blurt out random truths, or secrets. It would make sense for something dramatic in her life to involve a liar.

I decided that I had spent enough time at the library. I glanced at the clock and noticed that school would have been letting out in a couple minutes. I still didn't feel like going home.

I folded up the old newspaper and gently tucked it away into my bag. The librarian still didn't glance up at me as I left the building.

Parked in front was Hank, as he stood patiently waiting for me. I felt bad if he had been there for awhile.

The moment I stepped off the staircase he opened the door for me.

"Hello, Ms. Manson," he greeted me with a polite smile. His cheeks folded into several creases of wrinkles.

"Hey, Hank," I responded casually while sliding into the leather seats.

A part of me wondered if it would be a good idea to pick up Tucker from school. I was always amused at his shocked expressions when he was reminded of how much money my family had, plus I knew he would be thrilled to go for a ride in my limo that he knows nothing about. The idea was ridiculous because I couldn't stand everyone else suddenly buddying up to me for a ride.

I pulled out my phone for the first time since I left school. There was a single message from Tucker.

 _Danny is worried about you._

I could just imagine his smugness behind the message. It had slipped my mind that Danny was in a decent amount of my afternoon classes. On top of that, he was probably smart enough to figure that I left after balling my eyes out, not from being sick. I wondered how Tucker found that out.

I quickly responded. _What do you mean?_

Tucker wouldn't be messing with me right now. If he did that would mean he had a death wish.

I rested my forehead on the glass, gazing thoughtlessly at the passing trees and buildings. That wasn't completely true. I did have some thoughts, all of which were consisting of Danny. The harder I tried not to think about him the more I did. So much for going the rest of the day with him off my mind.

Images of Danny Phantom and Valerie flashed through my head. Although the more logical side of me wondered why he and his enemy weren't fighting, I paid more attention to the little hurt teenager side. The part who was hurt that Danny had opened his secret up to another girl. It wasn't just any girl, it was Valerie Gray. She was his ultimate crush, and I no longer felt closer to Danny than any other girl in the world.

I wasn't planning on another sob session, but one final tear rolled down the side of my cheek. I felt it drop and land on my hand. I didn't bother to wipe it away. The feeling of it slowly disappearing in the cool air was a little refreshing.

It wasn't too long until we pulled up to the front of my parent's mansion. Hank had somehow magically beat me to opening the door. I was impressed.

"Thank you," I managed to say while still appearing to be friendly.

Hank nodded his head, "Any time, Ms. Manson."

"Call me 'Sam,'" I corrected him as I went up to my front door.

"Okay, Sam!" he called out to my back.

One thing that surely did annoy me about the workers were how much they watched me when I was around. I know that they're just making sure they are ready for anything that might be thrown their way, but the feeling of his eyes burning into the back of my skull just made me uneasy. The feeling of anyone staring at me made me uneasy.

Inside, all I was met with was silence. My grandmother was nowhere to be found, which wasn't unusual. She had more of a busy life than I did. Bingo wasn't going to play itself.

My parents were another couple of busy people. I only saw them before I went to school. My mom always said she had very important business to attend to, my dad always tagged along. The funny thing is that they were only doing their actual jobs five percent of the time. I'm pretty sure there is some secret, uptight parent society that they lead.

My moment of peace was ruined when my phone let out an obnoxious ring. I clumsily dropped it from jumping at the sound. I grunted in annoyance to myself. I really was a mess.

I slowly reached down to pick it up. I was in no hurry to answer the call, I didn't care much to speak to anyone.

My breath hitched when I read the caller ID. " _Danny_."

My hands shook slightly. I didn't know what I was feeling, whether if it was frustration or dejection,either way it wasn't a good feeling.

I didn't deny the call, although there was no way in hell I was going to accept it. I let it ring out before it went silent. I wondered if Danny had given up or waited for the time limit to go up.

I slowly exhaled, I wasn't even aware that I had been holding my breath.

I'm more than ready to move on with my day. I can worry about Danny and Valerie some other time.

My stomach made some type of strange noise. I hadn't even noticed that I missed both breakfast and lunch. I went to the kitchen to dig out some type of snack. My parents had very few options left for me in the house. They really didn't understand my vegetarian ways.

I rummaged through the fridge until I heard a weak voice call my name. Looking up, I saw the older version of my mom. "Grandma?" I wondered for a moment."I thought you were out."

She sat there with a lively smile of her face. I didn't understand why she drove the little cart around everywhere she went. Secretly, Grandma's legs were still fully functional despite her age. In fact, I bet ya she could even do a full out cartwheel if she really wanted to.

Her hair, as usual,was pulled back into a high ponytail. She wore the same pink sweater and purple skirt as always. Although I didn't really like the particular shade of pink, I would rather have it be that than my tank top. I don't even want to know how she fit into one of my shirts before, no offense.

"I was taking a nap," she ended that sentence with a tired yawn before rubbing whatever remained of her sleep away from her eyes.

She stared at me in a way that made me uneasy. It was as if she was trying to solve a puzzle that was on my face.

"Is something wrong, Grandma?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

She thoughtfully tilted her head to the side, "Why have you been crying?"

My eyes widened slightly. I have been certain to check my reflection in the window of the limo before. There weren't any tear stains on my face and by that time my complexion had settled down from the reddish tint.

"How could you tell?" I stuttered out. I really didn't want any more people knowing that I had been upset. I loved my grandma, but if word had traveled from her to my parents then they would be sure to sue someone.

She gave me a confident smile, "You think I don't know what's wrong with my own granddaughter? I could read everyone in this house like a comic strip."

"Oh," my voice trailed off. I wasn't sure how to respond to that. I didn't bother to correct her that it was supposed to be "like a book" either.

"What's wrong, Munchkin?"

I closed the fridge and moved to sit at the stool by her side. I figured I might as well tell her since she wouldn't believe me if I tried to play it off as nothing. Of course I couldn't tell her the _complete_ truth because ghost powers had to remain a secret. I might be upset with Danny but I would never betray him like that.

"Well," I drew out the word in an attempt to stall, "I kinda told someone something that wasn't true and it kinda blew up in my face." I couldn't have been any more vague.

My grandma dramatically gasped. She brought her hand to her heart as if she was experiencing chest pains. "Sam!" she cried in disbelief. "You told a lie?" I shamefully nodded my head.

She ticked in disappointment with a small shake of her head. "Oh Sammy," she sighed, "who was it you lied to?"

"Danny," I mumbled. I could barely hear myself, but could tell my grandma caught on in the way her eyes lit up.

She clasped her hands together with an excited grin. "Daniel Fenton," she cooed, "I love that boy. He's so handsome." It was strange for my grandma to compliment him like that out loud, not that I would necessarily disagree.

Out of everyone in the family, my grandma was the only one who actually liked both of my friends. She didn't see him as a bad influence, if anything I was the bad influence. Even though I never confirmed anything to her on my feelings towards Danny, she always tried to push me into dating him. If anything it was embarrassing.

Her energy drained when she realized why Danny was brought up. "You lied to him," she frowned. "He's your best friend, Sammy! You don't lie to your best friends!"

"I know!" I exasperatedly said while throwing my hands in the air. I regained my calmness right when I realized my voice was a little too loud between the two of us. "I know," I repeated in a quieter tone. "It's just," i sighed in frustration, not really knowing what I was supposed to say. "It's just I _really_ couldn't tell him something and I was under pressure and I just blurted out this random thing and it just so happened to mess everything up."

Grandma placed a hand on my knee. She gave me a soft smile, the same smile she would give after reading a bedtime story to me as a little kid. "I would love to help," she offered, "but I can't unless you open up more."

I considered her offer for a moment. My grandma had never been judgemental towards me. If anything,she embraced the way I lived my life. Out of everyone in my family, my grandma was the most brutally honest about who she was and in her actions. If I was going to get any helpful advice, not that Tucker hadn't been helpful, it would come from her.

"I'm sorry," I forced a smile. "I guess I just kinda felt embarrassed about it." Without a word, she nodded her head to egg me on to continue speaking. I let out a slow sigh while moving to rest my cheek on my fist with my elbow propped up on the counter.

I tried to play it off as if I wasn't as bothered as I looked. "I guess you could say for awhile I had some type of crush on Danny, not that it was some life changing thing," I hastily added. "But yeah, I liked him. Tucker, although I didn't really formally tell him until recently, figured that out about me. He would always tell me how obvious I was about it." I humorlessly snorted at the thought of him pestering me to admit I liked Danny while I was just being in a state of constant denial. Although I couldn't really tell myself, apparently I was really easy to read about it.

"One day," I continued on with my short story, "Tucker started calling Danny 'Clueless.' I knew right away why he was doing that. Danny had _no_ idea about how I felt. I went along with the nickname and would occasionally call him the same thing. If we ever used codenames, his was always 'Clueless.'" My grandma didn't bother to ask me why we would use secret names, which was to my relief. I was trying to not lie anymore after the past few days.

"Danny didn't think much of it at first, but overtime he began to get annoyed by the 'inside joke 'Tucker and I had created against him." I thought back to last week when we had been teasing Danny and calling him "clueless." If I could I would go back in time and undo that entire day.

"At one point Danny then decided that he wouldn't leave me alone until I told him why he was clueless." Danny wasn't stupid, yet he was somehow so dense to not even realize it himself. I didn't mind his denseness but he wouldn't let the darned nickname go.

"The biggest problem with that was he didn't like me, he likes someone else." I wanted to throw myself out the window for how typical I sounded. I was complaining about how some boy didn't have a crush on me but instead the prettier, more popular girl. Although, Danny was just some boy… he was Danny.

I began to speak at a faster pace, "And- I don't know- I was under so much pressure from him for being put on the spot that I just had this word vomit type of thing where my mouth had a mind of its own."

I then hung my head in shame. I didn't know how my grandma would react to my next line. "I told him it was because Tucker and I were dating," I purposely chose to keep those words in a low mumble.

My grandma had not reacted the way I was expecting. Her voice bursted out in a loud laughter that probably made the birds in the park fly south. I must've jumped at least a foot in the air.

"I'm sorry, Sam!" she wiped away a tear. "It's just that out of everything you could've said, it was _that_? That really is absurd."

I rolled my eyes at her antics. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumbled, slightly annoyed that she was finding humor in the source of my most recent stress. Even though what I said was completely ridiculous.

"Danny changed after I told him that," I nervously chewed on the inside of my cheek. Grandma contained her laughter after I began to speak again. "He started to avoid me and we've been fighting. He's still friends with Tucker but I'm the one he hates. I don't completely blame him."

I thought back to earlier today. When Danny saw me crying earlier, all I had done was push him away. I wondered if I had asked him to stay if we would had made up. I doubted it, considering he was replacing me with Valerie already.

"Sam," my grandma said lovingly. I didn't mind the way she would start her sentences with my name. "I think I know why Danny is so upset."

Of course she would. The thing with old people is that they claimed not to understand anything about computers but the second you tell them about your personal life they get all knowledgeable.

"And why is that?" I inquired.

She leaned in close with a giddy grin, "He likes you too."

I rolled my eyes. She didn't understand. I couldn't explain to her about Valerie.

"Really, Sam!" she insisted. "If your friend didn't get all hot over you"- gross- "then he wouldn't have been upset." She had an excited look in her wide eyes.

"I remember a similar incident from when I was your age," she continued before I could even respond. "I had a thing with this young man named Hank, and boy were his hands magic!"

I outwardly groaned as I banged my head on the counter. I could hear my grandma's laughter, she was probably trying to scar me on purpose.

"Oh yes we would always go behind the old school and do all sorts of things mother wouldn't allow," she continued on. I swear my ears were about to bleed. "Anyways, we were never officially courting. He would take out other girls all the time. I eventually decided to go to the movies when a good friend of mine asked me, your grandfather. Oh boy, was Frank upset."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "I thought his name was Hank." My grandma ignored my statement.

"Do you see the point of my story, Sam?" she inclined her head, waiting for me to answer. I really didn't.

I nodded my head with a small smile. "Yes," I forced a hopeful tone to my voice, "thanks, Grandma."

"Anytime, dear."

I moved from the kitchen as fast as I could after that. I really didn't want to hear anymore life stories from Grandma. While on one hand I could see that she was trying to show me how Hank (or Frank) was jealous, it didn't apply to Danny and I.

I went up to my room, still hungry. My bed was left messy from this morning. I plopped onto it, surprised that my body did not leave an imprint on the mattress from the weekend.

My moment was short lived when my phone went off once again. A part of me feared that it was Danny, but when I checked it was only Tucker.

" _Sam!_ " he cried into the phone the second I accepted his call.

"Tucker," I groaned back. Clearly I didn't match his amount of energy.

" _Sam_ ," he repeated.

My name was already very worn out in this conversation. "Yeah I think we both understand that's who I am," I bluntly noted.

" _You totally missed it!_ " he continued. " _There was another ghost attack at school_."

I sat up in my bed, hugging my knees to my chest. "Ghost attacks happen all the time," I rolled my eyes, not caring for whatever reason Tucker had to call me.

" _Danny was fighting the ghost_ ," Tucker began to put emphasis on his words. The way he spoke in shock perked my attention. " _It was the redhead from this weekend. I think he got hurt. They were talking and then he suddenly vanished. Valerie had to step in but the ghost got away._ "

"What were they talking about?" I wondered.

" _I don't know_ ," I heard Tucker sigh from the other side of the line. " _But it really bothered him I guess. He hasn't answered any of my messages or calls._ "

I wondered how long ago that had been. I couldn't help but feel concerned for Danny. "Danny had called me earlier," my eyes widened when I registered my own words. Danny wasn't talking to Tucker but he had called me. I thought he hated me by now.

I wished I had answered the phone. Maybe if it wasn't too late I could call him back. "I'm sorry, Tucker," I quickly rambled. "I have to go." I hung up the phone, not catching on to whatever protests Tucker had yelled.

I began pacing around my room. I had Danny on speed dial but for some reason I just dialed out his whole number. I stared at the call button for a second before pressing it.

No one answered.

I began biting at the nail of my thumb. I really did hope Danny was okay. Maybe Serena was just messing with him. I stopped in my tracks. Or maybe she made Danny say something he didn't want to. I began to pace again.

I could understand how Danny might've wanted to be alone for sometime. I liked to have my own personal time to think to myself. Lately it seemed like that's all I ever had.

For the heck of it, I called Danny one more time. Again there was no answer.

I don't know what I was expecting. If he had answered I probably would've just made random noises.

The phone beeped for me to leave a message. I contemplated saying something, anything, but decided not to.

Danny could handle himself. Wherever he was, he was okay. If anything, Danny was sitting at his house playing computer games alone. Danny wasn't much of a person to wander the streets venting to himself.

I wondered if he ever just hung out in the Ghost Zone, just for leisure. I doubted it since over half of the ghosts despised him for sending them back there in the first place.

I plopped back down onto my bed. Tucker and I texted back and forth. Although I badly wanted to ask him about it, I avoided the topic of how Tucker had come to the conclusion that Danny was actually concerned about me.

Tucker kept trying to get me to come out to his secret geek club meeting, I think he called it the "Retro Techno Life-o." I really hoped it wasn't him who had came up with that name. Eventually, he gave up and began to take more time to respond. As the minutes drew out I decided to turn my attention elsewhere other than waiting on Tucker.

I opened up my backpack to where I kept the stash of yearbooks.I flipped through the pages multiple times, trying to see if there was any sign as to what lead to Serena's death. I began to write down the names of the people who shared the photos with her.

I circled the name around her boyfriend. Although I didn't think she would go _that_ far because of a boy, he might have a play in her hatred of liars. I figured it surely had to be an important cause of her death if it was enough to take effect in giving her ghost abilities.

A lot of ghost who have died a simple life didn't get special abilities. I know that sounds harsh but it's true. We have fought several ghosts that had tried to stand out, but all they were able to do was hover and phase through walls.

It would be kind of sad to become a ghost with the basic ghost powers. It meant you never felt passionate enough over something during your lifetime. If I became a ghost drifting through the Ghost Zone, maybe I would get those vegetarian powers that Tucker always joked about.

I had sappy music, or at least as sappy as metal could get, blasting on the stereo. I hoped that when my parents eventually got home they would take the music as a hint that I'm not to be disturbed.

Unfortunately, no matter how loud the music was, it failed to drown out the sound of a knock. I groaned as I heaved myself out of bed. I pulled my door opened, but to my surprise no one was there. I could have sworn that I heard a knock.

As if on cue the tapping sound went off. I closed the door and looked behind me. It had came from somewhere within my. I turned the music off, letting the silence over whelm me. There was an annoying ringing in my ear.

The knocking went off again. Raising an eyebrow, I slowly turned towards the window. My black curtains were closed, blocking me off from whatever was outside.

There was no way a normal person could be knocking on my window.

I paused for a moment right in front of the fabric. I don't know why I was hesitating. I knew this feeling, I was nervous. I was very nervous. I clenched and unclenched my fists before ripping the curtains open.

My eyes widened as they were met with green ones. Danny gave me a sad smile with a half wave.

I briefly looked him over. There was no sign of any injuries. He looked like regular old Phantom, just without the cockiness.

I gulped, returning his wave with a weak one. We stared at one another for a couple moments. I'm certain he felt about as awkward as I had.

Him and Valerie sitting alone together were still burning fresh in my memory. I chewed on my lower lip so he wouldn't see it quiver.

"Um- Could you open up?" his voice was muffled through the glass. Danny pointed at the window frame. I didn't necessarily understand why he asked that when he could literally move through walls.

I stared at him for another set of seconds before nodding my head. I pushed the window opened, briefly struggling when the old frame had got caught.

Before I could retract I felt a cool hand grab my wrist. "What are you-?!" my protests fell short.

I gasped as Danny moved through the opening and pulled me close all in one swift motion. He let go of my arm and held me close to his chest. One limb hung awkwardly down at my side as he squeezed me tight.

My skin tingled where he ducked his head down onto my shoulder. I could feel his faint breath chill my skin.

I felt very strange. Danny and I had never hugged this long before. He had never felt so firm in his hold as we rocked ever so slightly. Something about it was nice.

I could see a flash of light through my closed eyes. Suddenly I was enveloped into his warmth.

"Danny?" I lightly nudged him from me. We pulled apart, giving me the space I needed to breath. Why was my heart racing? It kind of hurt.

"I-I'm sorry," he stuttered. His entire face was red as if he had just ran a marathon. He continued to speak before I could sound an entire syllable.

"Please hear me out," he brought his hand up to my mouth. I almost bit him but decided against it. "I tried to call you earlier but you didn't answer so I thought we weren't going to be friends anymore, but then you called me back and as soon as I noticed I missed a call from you I had to come right over because you are one of my only real friends and it would just be weird if it was just Tucker and I." Danny spoke so fast that I could barely comprehend what he was saying.

I furrowed my eyebrows. I wonder if what Serena had said to him earlier brought this on. "I was talking to Tucker earlier," I saw Danny's left eye twitch when I said his name, "and he mentioned you were fighting Serena earlier. He said you guys were talking before you just left." I paused for a moment, trying to read Danny even though I was getting no reaction out of him. "What were you two talking about?"

He shifted his weight from one foot to another. "Tucker wouldn't stop asking me the same thing," Danny muttered. He leaned back onto the windowsill, string down at his feet.

I had a feeling that he wouldn't answer me. Even though I was curious, I figured not the press the subject while we were leaning towards being on good terms.

"You're my bestfriend," I cracked a smile at Danny. He looked up at me through his bangs, letting a grin spread across his face.

"So," Danny cleared his throat, taking his blue eyes from mine, "you and Tucker, huh?" I had never seen a more uncomfortable look on his face before.

In that moment, I had the urge to come clean. It would've been easy to. I could tell Danny the truth. Tucker and I weren't dating. I'm sure Tucker would approve of me opening up to Danny, but something held me back.

Valerie was still existing very much. It was only earlier today that she was sitting close to Danny with her hand on his leg. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I wondered if they had kissed.

I was just the friend to Danny, and Valerie was another one of his dream girls. He showed her Phantom, Danny never showed anyone Phantom. That surely had to mean something.

I bite my tongue. I couldn't bring myself to tell him the truth. Not now, not while Danny wasn't hating me.

"Yep," I managed. I slowly nodded my head, looking off to the far wall.

"Well," we both looked at each other at the same time, "I'm happy for you." Danny seemed to be straining himself to smile now.

I had a feeling that was a lie.


	6. Chapter 6

**Here's the next chapter. I'm really liking how this story is coming together and I hope you guys are too. Thank you for all the support! Feel free to leave a review as well!**

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I wasn't sure what exactly to expect the next day at school. I had briefly told Tucker that Danny and I "talked," but then decided to ignore him when he started bombarding me with questions. I swear he is worse than my mother sometimes.

I woke up early, unable to sleep from the nervous feeling growing in my stomach. I think they were butterflies, the same kind that a kid gets on the night before Christmas or while counting down to a vacation. I didn't like this feeling.

My mind was strictly reserved for Danny at the moment. I wondered if he thought of me as much as I thought of him, although I doubted it.

My cheeks burned as I remembered how he had embraced me near my window. I wished I could still feel his arms around me but by now it was already just a memory. Gosh, that sounded awful. I really was turning into your classic, love-sick, teenage girl. Expect my inner monologue to star in the next rom com.

If Danny was to be my friend again, then I was no doubt excited. It was enough to get me out of bed a whole hour earlier than usual. I was ready for school, left to count down the minutes until I could appropriately leave. It was the longest 45 minutes of my life.

My mom was left in shock to see that I had been ready for the day long before she was. She called after me, most likely wanting to have a morning bonding session, but I yelled back a quick goodbye, not stopping for a second for her.

The sun was still rising when I stepped outside. A blue hue spread across the streets and the buildings crammed along it.

Amity Park wasn't a big city, but it was still a city nonetheless. Life began early here. Already, cars raced up and down the roads. It was the beginning of the first rush hour.

On my walk to school, my eagerness began to fade away. I was still in the conflict where Danny believed that Tucker and I were actually dating, even though the idea of it was completely outrageous.

A part of me wanted to believe that Tucker was right about Danny being jealous, but there was still Valerie I had to worry about. I should've asked Danny what had happened between them yesterday, but I was too caught up in his presence alone.

My strides began to slow. I decided that I would take my time on my walk to school, even though I was already halfway there by now.

I was beginning to actually hate having a brain, it caused me to overthink way too much.

When I finally stepped inside, there was still 20 minutes until class started. The hallways were barely crowded. Some kids sat on the floor along the walls, finishing last night's homework.

I spotted Tucker hanging around my locker. He was impatiently tapping his foot while typing away at his PDA, probably trying to occupy his time while waiting for me.

I contemplated turning away and going back home, just to avoid him. Tucker is going to be rather annoyed that I didn't come clean to Danny, or that I had been ignoring him for most of the night.

"Sam!" his head snapped up at me with a somewhat eager smile plastered across his face. A gave him a weak grin while proceeding to unlock the handle. "Why weren't you answering any of my calls or texts last night?" Jeez he really was starting to sound like my boyfriend.

I nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders. "Sorry," I really wasn't. "I guess I got caught up."

Tucker rolled his eyes at me. "What were you and Danny doing last night?" I saw the twitch of a sly grin in his expression. Oh, he sure thought of himself as sneaky.

"Nothing at all," I narrowed my eyes at him. "We just talked for a couple of minutes and then he left."

"Did he tell you why he was acting so strange?" Tucker pressed.

I shook my head. Whatever Serena had told him surely seemed to affect Danny. Hopefully she'll be over soon. I recalled the bits of information I had learned about her yesterday. It was a good start in figuring out her motives and stopping her.

"No, but get this," I held his attention, "Serena used to go here."

Tucker cocked an eyebrow, "You mean to this school?"

I nodded my head. The only other known ghost to have gone to Casper High was Poindexter, and he was more of an annoyance than a threat. I had actually ended up feeling bad for the guy, even though he did ultimately try to take over Danny's body and trap him inside a locker but those are little details. Poindexter was still the victim of relentless bullying. Maybe Serena was a victim too.

"I actually went to the library yesterday," I continued with the nod of my head. "I found a few yearbooks with her in them. You can see the year she died and all."

"Did you tell Danny this?"

"No," the few seconds that my mind had not been on Danny were destroyed. "I will today, probably during lunch."

Tucker waggled his eyebrows at me. I swear he puts too much emotion into them. I wouldn't be surprised if one day they just hopped off his forehead and walked away.

"So you guys are really on speaking terms now?" he mentioned suggestively.

"Not that it changes much," I half whimed. "He still thinks we're dating."

Tucker dramatically sighed, throwing his hands in the air. "Why won't you just tell him? Can't you see how relieved Danny would be? Or I would be?"

"It's not that easy," I groaned. I was more than ready to return the attitude that Tucker had developed. "He still has Valerie and I can't think of a good excuse as to why we would fake date."

Tucker thoughtfully looked me over. I purposely looked towards the ceiling, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze.

"You know, Sam," I could have sworn Tucker sounded somber, "maybe you don't need an excuse. Maybe you should just tell him the truth."

I didn't answer Tucker. I wasn't going to further push my habit of avoiding the truth when I already knew it was wrong. Sometimes it felt necessary while others it seemed just plain idiotic, in this situation it was a cross in the middle.

I slammed my locker shut, hoping that Tucker would take the hint that I was ready to talk about something else, anything else. "Let's focus a bit on Serena, okay?"

Tucker nodded his head. "Weird chick, I don't like her." I rummaged through the stack of books I held onto. I pulled out one of the yearbooks I had remembered to bring with me and handed it to Tucker. He flipped through the pages until he stopped on the memorial page in her honor.

"She manipulates people into saying things they usually wouldn't," I was sure to speak hushed so that only Tucker could hear me, "or things you would hide. I think her hatred towards liars has something to do with her death. Maybe someone betrayed her."

"Well I hope we find out soon cause so far simple hand to hand combat hasn't been working in Danny's favor. She must have a weakness."

Tucker stopped in front of the classroom door. He looked inside where Lancer sat alone at his desk. I squinted my eyes at the cover, recognizing the book as a notorious smut story. I haven't read it myself, but all the housewives have. I always knew Lancer was somewhat of a pervert.

"She used to go here, right?" I nodded my head to confirm his statement. "Well right there is an adult who had been teaching since the Stone Age," Tucker motioned his thumb at the older man. "I bet Lancer knows something."

I glanced between Tucker and Lancer, wondering how I could casually ask him about a dead girl.

Tucker did have a point though. Lancer was the only teacher who had worked at Casper High through the 90's that I talked to on a daily basis, by force of course. While I'm certain that there must have been at least one other teacher who had worked here longer than him, I barely knew of any of them.

"No one else is in the room yet," I murmured looking around. "I guess now is better than ever."

Lancer didn't spare a glance at me as I pulled the door opened. He was still caught up in his book as both Tucker and I walked up to the front of his desk. I cleared my throat after a moment of awkwardly staring at him.

Lancer jumped up slightly. His forehead turned red as I saw a bead of sweat drip down the side of his face. Tucker and I spared a glance between one another as he frantically shoved the book away into a drawer.

Lancer tried to regain his composure as best as he could. "And how can I help you two?" A fake smile slowly spread across his face as he intertwined his hairy knuckles.

"Um, I have a question about a family friend that you may have known of," I lied. How ironic: I was lying to find out more about a ghost who hates lying.

Lancer arched an eyebrow at me.

I turned to Tucker, who opened reopened the yearbook to a picture of Serena. The instant Lancer saw the picture, I saw his eyes widen ever so slightly. It was enough for me to know that he recognized her.

"Serena Valentine," Lancer thoughtfully murmured to himself. He brought a hand up to his chin and scratched the area. "Why do you want to know about her?"

"Family friend," I repeated right away, "like I had said."

Lancer nodded slowly, still thinking silently to himself. "So what do you want to know? Wouldn't your parents be a better source of information?" Lancer finally asked.

"My mom and her mom were friends," I continued on with my fake story. "My mom used to live in Chicago, so during Serena's high school years she wasn't exactly in Amity Park. It had always bothered her that she never knew exactly how Serena died. So I was wondering if, on my poor mother's behalf, you could shed some light on the situation?"

In some miraculous way, Lancer bought the story. It was a bit of a stretch really, and I hadn't expected him to give in so easily.

Lancer sighed heavily, "She was a student of mine once. I had her during her freshman and senior years of high school."

Many times before, Tucker and I had joked about how old Lancer was, but now I was really starting to see how he's aged. He looked worn and tired, as if something was haunting him. Maybe teaching after so many years was more stressful than he thought it would be, surely he had not expected to deal with a haunted high school.

"Serena-," Lancer paused as he tried to collect his thoughts, "Serena was a nice girl. She was smart and successful in her student career. As a teacher, you tend to notice things. As I notice some students pick on you, back then I noticed that Serena was bullied heavily her freshman year."

I couldn't help but feel some contempt towards the man. He had seen Danny get shoved into lockers multiple times before and had never done anything. I wonder how many of his students suffered because he wouldn't step in and help them.

"By senior year," Lancer continued, "she wasn't just academically successful, she was also very popular. She actually hung around the kids who used to torment her the most. In her last few weeks attending here"- a.k.a. Serena's last few weeks of being alive- "I noticed a shift in this. Her friends had once again turned on her. I guess she couldn't handle it because before anyone knew it, she never showed up to school again. She jumped off a cliff."

I clenched and unclenched my fists at Lancer's word choice. No one should have to "handle" bullying. While he probably didn't mean to sound so biased about it, he did. Lancer always managed to defend the bullies. He favored Dash or Paulina over me any day just because of their social status.

I hoped he felt guilty for never stepping in.

"That's it?" Tucker sounded unconvinced at my side.

Maybe Serena did commit suicide, but what did those kids do that was so bad? There had to be more.

"That's all I know of," Lancer heaved another sigh.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. "What about the names of the kids who harassed her?"

Lancer opened his mouth to answer, but before he got a word out a group of students suddenly came into the classroom. Their louder demeanor cut Lancer off from furthering the conversation.

He stood up at his desk. "I'm going to get my coffee," Lancer quickly, or as quick as he could, spun on his heel away from us, "I suggest you two take your seats."

Tucker and I shared one last look before heading to the back of the room. I hadn't even sat for a second when a sudden extremely familiar voice was right by my side.

"Hey guys," Danny gave us a small wave. Oh boy did he look uncomfortable.

Tucker didn't seem to notice the tension when he eagerly waved back. "Danny! I didn't even see you come in!"

"I guess you could say I was as invisible as a ghost," Danny joked. I inwardly groaned at his awful attempt of humor.

"I wished you'd be as quiet as a ghost," I couldn't help but tease.

Danny frowned at me, holding the most serious expression I've ever seen on him. "You should know by now that ghosts aren't quiet in any way."

I grinned at him. This brief moment felt right. It was almost as if we were back to normal. Almost.

Danny stiffened when I noticed his eyes dart between Tucker and I. Maybe it was obvious, but I could tell he was physically straining himself to keep calm.

So Danny was still upset over Tucker and I dating, even though it wasn't true. I couldn't help but think back to how much Tucker tried to insist that he was just jealous. As much as I hoped for it to be true, something was holding me back from accepting it.

I thought back to seeing Phantom and Valerie sitting side by side alone. The image was going to be bored into my brain for the rest of eternity, I just knew it.

Last night Danny and I hadn't talked about it. Although I wanted to ask him about it, I also didn't want him to realize I had been crying over him, even though he was likely going to be asking about it at some point.

My mind kept bouncing back and forth between the images of Valerie and the feeling of Danny holding me. I had the strong urge to hug him back. I didn't like this feeling, my arms literally ached to hold him.

"You sure are early," Tucker commented.

Danny walked around me and took a seat at the desk on the other side of Tucker. "Jazz actually gave me a ride to school today." He brought his hand up to rub the back of his messy hair, "I don't know about her though. I feel like she's up to something. All she's been wanting to do is 'talk' lately. I hate when she plays therapy with me."

"Talk about what?" I wondered out loud.

Danny's head snapped towards me. His eyes were widened slightly, allowing for the blueness in them to intensify. I raised an eyebrow when I noticed a redness grow in his cheeks. "Um- nothing," he stuttered. "You know Jazz, always saying crazy stuff."

"I could say the same about you," I muttered.

Tucker snickered, which earned him a punch on the shoulder from Danny. He grumbled something incoherent while rubbing the assaulted area.

I took this as my opportunity to get to business. "I found some things out about Serena." I once again met the gaze of Danny. I gave him the rap about how I went to the library and found her in several yearbooks. I left out how Serena had met me on the front school steps, feeling as if that bit wasn't necessary.

"Maybe mentioning those students could be her weakness," Danny thoughtfully pondered. "I mean I could distract her during a confrontation and then one of you guys could pull out the thermos."

"Do you think it's enough?" I wondered.

Danny shrugged, "It could be. Whatever they had done to her was enough to push her over the edge, literally."

Neither Tucker or I laughed at Danny's lame pun. We both gave him a look of mutual disappointment before turning to the front of the room as Lancer had returned to begin his lecture.

The rest of the day was somewhat returned to the normalcy that I was comfortable with. We danced around the topic of Tucker and I "dating," much to my relief.

Although, it did get on my nerves that Tucker would cast me a look that said something along the lines of, "You should just tell Danny right now that we aren't dating so you two can admit your feelings for each other and live happily ever after," every time Danny's head turned in another direction.

Part of me wanted to see Serena today, but there was no sign of her anywhere. Every time Danny's ghost sense went off, it was just a regular such as box ghost. I wonder if she was purposely staying away, although I doubt she had anything to lose since she was already dead.

I would have preferred to run into her rather than Valerie, any ghost would've been better. Valerie wasn't a bad person despite my habit of disliking her presence. She was a regular teenage girl, save for the whole ghost-huntress thing, but I couldn't judge her for doing that since hunting ghosts was my nightly ritual.

All I had needed was one more minute and I could've avoided her, just one more minute and I would've been out of this school.

"So you and Danny are friends again?"

I outwardly groaned, hoping that she would take the obvious hint and leave. "Not that it's any of your business, Valerie, but we had always been friends." I turned my head to look her over. I was shocked to see a bruise ringing around her left eye. Her darker skin made it less noticeable, but if you stood as close to her as I had it would be the only thing you could see

"What happened to your face?" I bluntly asked with a slightly nicer tone.

Valerie just rolled her eyes. "It's nothing," she obviously lied.

I thought back to everything that had happened yesterday. Danny fled his fight with Serena and ended up at my house, that probably left Valerie to hunt more ghosts than she was used to. I hate to admit that she has a notable skill, but her technology could only take her so far without ghost abilities of her own.

"Was it that ghost with the red hair?"

Valerie narrowed her eyes at me, "How do you know about her?"

I was surprised she didn't try to deny any associations with the ghost, usually Valerie would play dumb.

"Um -yeah," I stammered. "I saw her yesterday in the hallway," even though I wasn't at school during the time of the attack.

Valerie's expression slackened as if she had nothing to suspect. "Yeah, I guess you could say I got in the way," she glanced down at the floor. Something was bothering her.

"But that's it!" Valerie hastily added, snapping her head up.

Before I could even respond, Valerie took off down the hallway. "I gotta go," I heard her murmur without a single glance back at me.

That exchange surely was weird. I was expecting her to taunt me more, but we barely argued.

The unusual behavior had quickly slipped my otherwise preoccupied mind of a certain dark haired, blue eyed boy until later that evening.

Danny sent me a brief but self-explanatory message that he wanted help on ghost patrol for the night. We, Tucker, Danny, and I, wanted to keep a close eye out for Serena. Danny tried to reason that I might also be a target for her, so it was best for all of us to stay together. I was conflicted between wanting to prove that I was an independent woman who could handle herself or being flattered at how protective Danny was being.

After very little protests, I agreed and decided to remain in the trio. Tucker was still bothering me to confess my "undeniable, everlasting love" for Danny. Somehow he remained oblivious to what we were arguing over. I decided to end the conversation by pulling Tucker's red beret over his face.

In a sudden flash of red and green, Serena fell from what appeared to be the top of a nearby building. Several branches from a tree were pulled down with her as she hit the cement. Despite being a ghost and immune to any real body injuries, she winced.

"Wow, talk about dropping in," Danny quipped.

Serena glared at Danny. She pushed herself back up before any of us could pull out the Fenton Thermos.

His green eyes met mine before he took off to the sky after her.

I thought back to yesterday, when Serena had sat on the front steps with me. Then, she seemed as if she just wanted to talk, but now she was back to her usual, wanting to destroy us self.

Valerie then came out, but now in her red hunter uniform. She flew down on the hoverboard paid by, yours truly, Vlad Masters. It was an easy assumption that she had been fighting Serena just seconds before. I remembered the bruise that had stained her face. If Serena gave it to her, it would only make Valerie more determined in battle.

Tucker and I glanced between one another. I felt pretty helpless on the ground. I lightly tossed the thermos from hand to hand, thinking of what I could do.

I pulled Tucker to the side when I saw a ghost ray soaring in our direction. He shot a glare up at Danny, who responded with a weak apology.

After the ectoplasma hit the ground near our feet, Serena spun her head in our direction. I had a feeling I was about to get pretty involved in this fight.

Serena reached out both of her arms before diving right towards me. I raised my arms to shield my face, bracing myself for impact.

"No!" I vaguely heard Danny yell as she pushed me through a wall and inside the nearest convenient store.

The wind was knocked out of me as I felt myself crash into stacked shelves. The metal bars felt like the weight of a full forced train. I groaned as I tried to pick myself up from the pile of doughnuts and medicine that mountained on top of me. The best that I managed was to prop myself up onto my elbows.

"I wasn't planning on running into the drug store until this weekend," I managed with another groan.

"Your jokes are almost as bad as that ghost boy's," Serena sneered. I snapped my head to see her staring down at me from the ceiling. Her eyes were glowing green as her mess of hair flared out, burning a bright, unnatural red. Maybe she was a little angry.

I picked up the nearest box, it was cough syrup, and chucked it at her as best as I could. I completely missed since I was feeling sore all over, yet my throw was still better than Danny's and Tucker's in gym class. Speaking of Tucker…

"Hey!" he complained as the medicine bounced off his head. "I come in here to save you and this is the thanks I get?"

"My hero," I deadpanned, not feeling particularly safe.

A cold hand gently touched my arm. I turned my head to my other side and found Danny looking at me with concern. He was so close that the tip of his hair tickled my forehead. Despite how cold the air around him was, I felt my face heat up.

"Are you okay?"

I gave him a lopsided grin, "As okay as slamming into a pile of metal and drugs would make me." Danny helped pull me up.

"Oh isn't that sweet," Serena mocked.

Danny instantly pulled his hand away. I had to remember that, in his mind, Tucker and I were together. For some reason, I felt very guilty in that moment.

"I don't have much of a sweet tooth," Danny lifted himself up into the air, "but how about a knuckle sandwich?"

Tucker brought a hand up to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. Even Serena halted in her attack.

Danny looked around, recognizing our looks of disappointment. "That was a bit of a stretch, wasn't it?"

"Never say that again," I bluntly responded.

Before he could respond, a pink ray burst through the window and shot Serena squarely on the back. With a cry, she launched forward. Of course, out of every freaking place in this entire store, she just _had_ to land on me. I'm sure by later tonight I'm going to be as purple as my lipstick.

Valerie came through the broken glass. "Ha! Take that!" she triumphantly boasted. I could see Valerie's head shift between looking at Tucker and I. "What are you two losers doing here?"

I decided to ignore the "losers" part. Wouldn't she know why we were here? She had to have known Danny was both Phantom and Fenton after yesterday, and as his best friends we would faithfully be here for him.

Could Valerie not have known of his secret? No. I saw her sitting with Danny Phantom.

"Can't a girl just buy some," I read the label of a random box in my hand, "irritated… skin… ointment?" Tucker raised an eyebrow. I could tell he was physically trying to contain his laughter.

Before Valerie could question me anymore, Serena pulled me up with her. Once again she was carrying me in her arms as she flew away. I was really starting to feel like a rag doll.

I felt a strange rush as we went up through several floors of the building. I saw flashes of different apartments as we sped through them. I could only imagine how confused some of the apartment residents must be.

When we broke through the final ceiling, Serena dropped me onto the roof as if I was nothing.

I remembered how Danny mentioned that just physical fighting didn't seem to be working with her. I decided that now would be a good time to use my words, and I mean the nice ones.

"Wait!" I called out before she could attack my once again. Serena froze in mid-movement, with a single fist raised in the air.

"What is it?" she spat.

I tried to think on the spot. I had to be brutally honest. If I lied, she would know for sure. "Why are you doing this?" I hoped that maybe she would feel like participating in story time, then I could get her side of her death.

She sneered, "Do I have to have a reason?" Serena bitterly laughed. She swung her arm in front of her. Simultaneously, I felt an invisible force knock me over.

By now, I felt so much pain that I barely comprehended the ache. I stood back up as quickly as I could. "I know you do," I further pressed. "Why else would you hate liars so much?"

I knew then that I had brought a temporary change to Serena. Her fiery hair began to die down as her limbs fell to her sides. Serena landed her feet on the ground and slowly walked towards me. I took a couple steps back, making sure the keep a consistent amount of feet between us.

"You really want to know?" Serena smiled at me, although I saw no joy behind it. Her eyes began to shimmer in the dark lighting of the night.

I gulped, "Yes. I heard about those kids who used to bully you, and how you jumped off a cliff."

As soon as I said that she froze in place. "You think that's all that happened, don't you?" She let out a brief sadistic laugh before regaining her composure. "You know nothing."

"Then tell me," my voice was shaking. I wasn't scared, but Serena's bipolar emotions was making her become unpredictable. "I'll understand you."

"They didn't just bully me," her voice was about to break. "They made me think we were real friends, that they cared about me. _He_ convinced me that he loved me." Serena inhaled deeply as her unnecessary breaths became short and rapid. "I didn't jump off that cliff," she said in a much stronger voice, "I was pushed."

I gasped lightly. That surely was news.

Before I could respond, Serena's hair began to light up once again. It appeared as if flames were coming from the curls this time.

"I didn't kill myself," she yelled. "I was killed by liars like you!"

I was about to take another step back when I realized that I was standing on the edge of the building. Plummeting several stories onto the sidewalk was not my idea of a fun time, but apparently for her it was. My eyes widened when I realized that she was about to push me over, and I couldn't do anything.

Suddenly, green ectoplasm hit her side, knocking her over several feet. I breathed out the air I didn't realize I was holding in relief.

I knew it was Danny when I felt a pair of arms pull me from the edge.

"What took you so long?" I grinned at him, even though my hands were shaking. I couldn't stop the uncontrollable shiver.

Danny gave a sheepish smile, "Ghost hunter down there was kinda giving me a hard time for invading on what was apparently her catch."

Both of us turned our heads in Serena's direction. She was lying on the ground while half propped up by her arm. This was probably the weakest I've seen her.

"I don't get it," her voice was now quiet. Several tears began to run down her cheeks. "She lied to you, and you still care about her."

It was clear that Serena was now talking to Danny. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him turn his face towards me, but I purposely avoided meeting his look. I was becoming so anxious that I could've thrown up.

"What is she talking about, Sam?" He was so close it was hard to ignore him.

Serena smirked while she continued to cry. "Don't worry," she said in a sickly sweet tone, "she'll tell you."

In that instant I brought my hands up to my mouth. Serena flicked her wrist in the same moment, causing me to speak against my will. I thanked whoever was in the great beyond that I was quick enough to muffle my own voice.

Now would've been the perfect moment to pull out the thermos, but we were too caught up in the confrontation. Serena disappeared before Danny could throw another attack.

I wished he would have chased after her, but instead he stayed at my side.

"Sam," I finally turned to him, seeing a look of uttermost confusion on his face, "what did you just say?"

I really didn't want to have this conversation. "Um- nothing," I tried to laugh it off. He didn't laugh with me.

"Sam-"

"You let her get away!" I didn't think I had ever been so thankful for Valerie. She flew in over our heads before angrily turning to Danny, pointing an accusing finger at him. "I thought when we agreed to work together I wouldn't be doing all the work around here!"

Danny narrowed his eyes at her. I had never seen Danny annoyed with Valerie, but a part of me was liking it. "I had to protect Sam," he motioned to me with one hand still resting on my shoulder.

"How do you even know her?" Valerie suspiciously glanced at me. I pretended to not recognize her.

"I don't," Danny quickly defended himself, "but when I see a random civilian in trouble I have to save them as their hero." I snorted when I recognized Danny was using his "hero voice."

It suddenly clicked that they were speaking as if Valerie didn't know who Danny Phantom really was.

"Whatever," Valerie brushed off his excuse. "Just because I didn't attack you then doesn't mean we're friends now. Next time I expect you to actually help." After she spat her last words she took off, probably going to hunt down some other poor ghosts in an attempt to restore her pride.

"Guys!" A faint voice called out to us.

Danny and I looked at one another. A gust of wind blew my hair into my face, I didn't bother to push it out of the way.

"Guys!" I recognized it as belonging to a familiar technogeek. Danny's eyes widened as he probably had forgotten about Tucker just as I had.

We rushed to the edge of the building, peering over to see a tiny body frantically waving up at us.

"You guys left me behind!" he accusingly cried out.

Danny and I exchanged a half-guilty look. "No we didn't," I replied unconvincingly.

Tucker stopped waving. "Thanks for including me in your rooftop party," he sarcastically commented while beginning to pout.

I rolled my eyes, not bothering to explain how I was having the complete opposite of a fun time.

"Maybe next time you'll get to almost fall off a building," Danny retorted on my behalf.

Even though I almost died and had been thrown around a couple times, I couldn't stop thinking about how close Danny was to hearing me say that I liked him. I definitely wasn't ready for the truth. Not now, not ever.

* * *

 **Honestly one of my favorite parts of Danny Phantom is all the one liners he says when he fights ghosts.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you so much for your reviews so far! The support has been nice! I don't have much to say other than sorry for the delay and please enjoy this chapter as well.**

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I couldn't believe how fast the week was going by. Most teenagers looked forward to Friday, but I was dreading it more than my mom's cooking.

Tucker held his ground and was still adamant on telling Danny my little secret if I didn't by then. It's Wednesday now, giving me barely two days.

"Why must you torture me?" I groaned.

Tucker only met my misery with a smile. He really was a sadist. "I'm not torturing you, I'm just laying down some fact."

I really wanted to wipe his smug look off of his face. I didn't bother responding to his statement.

I turned to my locker, pulling out my packed lunch. The thing that sucked about school was that they didn't care about anyone's specific eating habits, whether if it was an allergy or vegetarianism. I always had to bring my own lunch, I really wouldn't mind not having to create a new meal for myself in the morning.

"Come on, Sam," he sighed. "Don't you think it's about time to get this over with?"

"One problem," I began walking down the hallway with him towing behind me, "Valerie still exists."

Tucker rolled his eyes, "So what about Valerie?"

I lightly elbowed his ribs. Tucker overreacted by bending over and cradling his midsection. "Danny is still head over heels for her. How is that for some fact?"

"Okay," Tucker reluctantly agreed, "but do you really not see the way he's so jealous over us?"

I couldn't lie this time. I was beginning to sense that Danny wasn't upset because we supposedly hid a relationship from him, but that I was in a relationship with someone else. I noticed how he never even laid a finger on me anymore. I had always been hyper aware whenever he had simply placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Did you see the way he was canoodling with Valerie as _Phantom_?" I snapped back. "Oh wait," I added as if I had a moment of clarity, "you didn't. I did. I saw it. That's it. Any chance of him and I are over."

Tucker thoughtfully stared at me for a moment. "Canoodling?" he finally managed with a snicker.

I punched him once again. "Ow," Tucker once again was holding himself in pain. "You're so violent when you're in love."

I froze at Tucker's use of the L-word. The hall was suddenly become ten times hotter. I didn't say anything, but I hope my glare spoke for me. Tucker didn't seem to mind though, he kept a stupid grin on his face.

"You know, Sam," Tucker added, "there is a possibility that Valerie hadn't seen Danny transform. Ya know?"

What Tucker said had seemed so obvious, yet I hadn't really thought of it. The mere thought of it brought me relief.

"Maybe," I mumbled, "I mean Valerie was still acting kind of hostile towards him last night, as if he wasn't Danny Fenton at all."

Tucker's face immediately brightened up. "Exactly!" His sudden yelling caused me to jump slightly. I really wasn't matching his amount of energy. "You don't know the whole story, maybe you should ask Danny what had happened."

It was a valid suggestion that maybe anyone else would take, but my paranoid self just _had_ to think of a possible downside. "What if Danny thinks I was stalking him?"

Tucker turned to face me. A group of kids that had been walking behind us lightly shoved him as they passed through our conversation. Tucker was unaffected by their roughness.

He grabbed my shoulders and began shaking me. "You need to stop over thinking every single thing," he drew out the last few words, his voice becoming louder and loud. "I'm a man of a simple mind, and look at how happy I am," Tucker dumbly smiled at me.

"That's an understatement," I deadpanned.

Tucker ignored my insult. "You have to ask Danny."

Before I could respond, the very voice that I dreaded spoke up from our side. "Ask me what?" I spun my head to see the one and only standing there. Danny held a clueless expression as he glanced between Tucker and I.

"Uh nothing," I lied while shoving Tucker away from me.

"Actually it's something," Tucker spoke up with an evil smirk on his face. He will pay for that.

Danny expectantly looked back at me. I felt as if I could just burn under the stare of his eyes. "Okay, yeah," I stuttered, "there is something." I was surprised in myself that I had somehow worked up the courage to easily give in.

"The other day," I nervously played with my fingertips, "I saw you in ghost form talking to Valerie and she wasn't trying to- ya know- rekill you. What was that about?"

I saw recognition instantly flash through Danny's face. "Oh that?" he furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah, after fighting a bunch we finally sat down a negotiated to work together to fight against Serena."

"But she was also kinda touching your leg," I added before I even realized how nitpicky I sounded. Danny raised an eyebrow at me. I panickedly looked back at Tucker, who was laughing at my misery. He really was going to pay.

"I mean she grabbed my knee when she threatened to rip it off if I pulled anything," Danny answered with a rather confused tone.

"Oh," my voice trailed off. This was a painfully awkward conversation. "Lunch?" I suggested, before quickly moving down the hall.

"Yeah," Danny agreed sounding just as uncomfortable.

He shuffled ahead of me, giving Tucker the perfect time to mock my misery. I stuck my tongue out at him before pushing him along.

Tucker, Danny and I were sitting at the table, minding our own business, when Jazz decided to pop on by. We were smart enough to know by now that she fully intended to meddle in Danny's life.

"Hey guys!" she flashed a smile while Danny only groaned. Jazz chose to ignore his tortured sounds and took a seat beside him.

"I don't get it," Danny angrily slammed his sandwich onto the table, or as angrily as one could treat PB&J with the crust cut off. "We're at home: you whine about me. Then, we're at school and you can't leave me alone!"

I haven't been seeing much of Jazz lately, but I figured from Danny's expression she's been leeching to his side. I raised an eyebrow when she pointedly gazed from me to him.

"Oh come on, Danny," Jazz sighed looking at Danny who had already gone back to eating his lunch, "you're my little brother, we're supposed to spend time with each other."

"Don't you have any friends?" I couldn't help but grin at his muffled voice and stuffed cheeks.

It was painfully obvious that the siblings were almost complete opposites, not mentioning their appearances. Jazz was very, for lack of a better word, uptight. She strived to be organized and for the environment around her to be perfect. Jazz wasn't that old, but I wouldn't be surprised if this entire time she turned out to be possessed by some 50 year old. Now that I think about it, her and my mom would be best friends.

Jazz cleared her throat. Danny jumped in his seat, as if someone had assaulted him. He gave an offended look to Jazz. "What?" he asked defensively.

"Remember that conversation we had earlier?"

Tucker and I exchanged glances, we were being kept in the dark for a reason. It bothered me. "Ya know I don't remember that conversation," I spoke up, causing the Fentons to snap at me. "Care to enlighten the table, Jasmine?"

I tried to ignore how Danny's face began to turn red, but it only made my suspicion grow.

"Uh, well, you see," Jazz stuttered, losing her cool easily.

Before she could give me a coherent response, a flock of students went running through the cafeteria doors. I recognized one of the cries being Paulina. I didn't catch much of what she was saying, but I'm almost certain she mentioned something about a bad hair day.

Tucker grabbed my shoulder. The second I turned to him, I changed my line of sight into the same direction he was pointing in.

"Ghost," I muttered. Although it wasn't just any ghost, it was Serena. She hovered above the crowd laughing as if she just heard the funniest joke of her life… I mean death.

"It's a ghost!" Jazz exclaimed. Her voice was loud enough to catch the attention of Serena who then hovered towards us.

With Jazz's gaze occupied, I noticed Danny duck away as swiftly as possible. Neither Tucker and I mentioned his absence, giving him a chance to find a place to go ghost.

"And it's an obnoxious teenage girl," Serena deadpanned. Her expression perked when she recognized Tucker and I standing at the other side of the table. "Oh it's my favorite goth freak and computer geek," she squealed, clasping her hands together.

Tucker cleared his throat, "It's actually 'techno geek'."

I promptly elbowed him in the gut. "Shut up you _moron_ ," I harshly whispered to him. Luckily, Serena didn't seem to pay any mind to us. Unluckily, I was pretty certain she was about to mess with Jazz.

"I am not obnoxious!" Jazz cried out while balling up her fists. Way to defend your honor.

Jazz's flustered composure suddenly faded as Serena waved her hand. "I'm a control freak to distract me from the lack of control I have over time," she admitted in a monotone voice.

Tucker began to snicker, earning him another elbow punch.

"What the-?" Jazz's voice trailed off as she snapped from her trance. She panickedly glance from us to Serena. Her eyes widened when she finally noticed a lack of Danny.

"He went inside," I quickly said before she could ask.

"And so should you be," Jazz determinedly scolded. "These are not the life scarring things you need to see at such a young age."

I didn't bother to mention how Jazz was barely two years older than us.

Jazz ran around the table and grabbed me by the arm in a flash. "Hey, what are you doing?" I protested, running along with her just so I wouldn't be dragged through the grass.

"And don't forget about me!" I heard Tucker yell from behind me.

"We should get inside and find Danny as quick as possible," Jazz spoke in the tone she used when she decided to take charge. If only she knew…

"I also want to flee the scene before my parents decide to show up," Jazz added.

I knew that Jazz (and Danny) suffered from consistent embarrassment from their parents. I didn't find Mr. and Mrs. Fenton to be that bad. They were way cooler than my own parents, or as cool as parents could even be considered. They had the fun type of crazy, although they weren't considered as crazy as before when all the ghosts started showing up.

"Where are we going?" I yelled over the screams of the other students. I didn't want to suspiciously break away from Jazz, but I also didn't want to miss another ghost battle. Tucker and I, moreso I, were the helpful sidekicks to Danny Phantom.

Speaking of said halfa, a door further down the hallway was thrown open, revealing Phantom. So much for discretion.

Jazz halted, finally letting go of my limb. I rubbed my arm, finally noticing how tightly she had been holding on to me. Jazz was stronger than she looked.

Danny flew over our heads in a flash of white before disappearing through the walls.

"The janitor's closet?" Jazz wondered while peek through the door he had came from.

"Looks like Danny just came out of the closet," Tucker snorted, just loud enough for me to hear.

I didn't bother to unleash any physical pain on him. I even cracked a grin at the lame joke. "And you're next," I taunted before moving to Jazz's side.

Jazz was pretty oblivious when it came to Danny's ghost powers. She probably passed off every weird behavior as some weird boy puberty thing. With or without ghost powers, guys going through puberty is some matter of another world.

I decided to mess with her. "Oh wow, is that some kind of ghostly closet?" I wondered in an amazed tone.

Jazz casted a glare at me. "No it's not," she replied seriously. "Dan- er, Ghostboy just so happened to fly by."

"You mean Danny Phantom," I don't know why I bothered to correct her. If anyone was going to make a connection between the names "Phantom" and "Fenton," it would be Jazz.

"Oh- um, yeah!" Jazz said a little louder than I would appreciate.

I casted a final glance at her before turning to face Tucker, only to find that he had disappeared. That traitor must've ran off to be with Danny.

Before I could even take a complete step forward, Jazz yanked my back by my tank top.

"Oh no you don't," she began to lecture me. "I'm not gonna lose you too." She really would get along with my mother.

"No offense, Jazz, but I can handle myself."

Among the commotion and our bickering, Lancer stood out in the crowd. "You kids!" he pointed in what just so happened to be our direction. I looked around me to see Mikey and Dash also caught in his line of sight.

"I might not have control over any of the student body," Lancer admitted with a loss of breath, "but I know you, Dash, are a well behaved student." There was so much wrong with that sentence.

Although Dash was shaking in his sneakers, he feigned a confident nod of the head.

Lancer wiped his brow with the back of his hand. "Good, good," he anxiously mustered. "I put you in charge of watching over these students. Some order is necessary."

"Yes, Lancer sir!" Dash saluted. I swear he was as easy to manipulate as a puppy dog.

I couldn't help but snort as Lancer scurried away, probably off to try to maintain the rest of the student body that ran off into chaos. "Yeah, okay," I sarcastically commented. "I think I know my way around the school enough on my own," I said as I began to head in the opposite direction of the crowd.

"Oh no you don't!" And once again I was yanked back by my shirt. Before I knew what was happening, Dash shoved me into the closet along with Jazz and Mikey. I was still on the floor when I saw Dash slam the door shut.

My eyes widened and I didn't think twice to jump to my feet and bang on the door. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?" I screamed through the wood door. I could practically see Dash in my head standing there with a stupid smile.

"Keeping you nerds in there would prevent any ghost from harming you," Dash called back.

It took every ounce in me not to punch the wall. "Ghosts can phase through walls you _moron_ ," I forced through clenched teeth. Dash didn't say anything in response.

"Sam," Jazz placed her hand on my shoulder. I had momentarily forgotten that she had been in the room with me. "Let me talk to him."

I huffed and turned away from the door, facing a shelf of cleaning supplies. Mikey cowered further behind the shelf when he met my gaze. I wasn't gonna take my anger out on him, I needed a thick headed jock for that.

"Dash?" Jazz called through the door over and over again. I could hear muffled screams and fear from the other side, but no response from Dash.

"Jazz," I sighed, releasing my clenched fists, "he's gone."

Jazz closed her eyes. I swear I almost heard her counting to ten in her head. "That's okay, this is okay," Jazz said moreso to herself.

"This is not okay!" Mikey shouted. I jumped slightly at his sudden outburst. This was probably the loudest I've ever heard him be. "There's a ghost in the school and we're trapped in here!"

Jazz was trying the door handle, but it was locked from the outside.

"We're dead!" Mikey cried over and over again. "We're all gonna die!"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes, "What are you talking about? We get ghost attacks almost every day."

"She's kinda right," Jazz agreed. She gave me a small smile that I forgot to return.

"Or maybe she's trying to hide the fact that she's a ghost!" Mikey backed up into the wall. Both Jazz and I raised an eyebrow at his accusing finger. I'm not the ghost teenager, that's all Danny.

"I'm really trapped with a bunch of nimrods," I muttered before looking around the room.

"Hey!" Jazz scowled at me. She did that mom thing where she placed her hands on her hips and was probably going to try to ground me. "What did I do wrong? You can't just insult me to my face."

I did feel some guilt for being so snappy, but I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Jazz. "I don't get why you felt the need to drag me with you. I'm Danny's friend, not yours to look after."

"Well I'm sorry," Jazz defensively crossed her arms. "I just felt an obligation to look after my little brother's best friend."

"I didn't see you carry Tucker on your shoulder," I retorted. "Why does it have to be me?"

"Because Danny-" Jazz stopped in the middle of her rant. It was obvious that she wanted to hide something with the way she slapped her hand over her mouth.

"Danny what?" I pressed.

"Nothing," Jazz covered up. I didn't believe her, but I had more important things to worry about at this moment.

I pulled out my phone and gave Tucker a quick call. He hasn't left me alone for the past week but when I actually need him he decides not to answer his phone. Some techno-geek.

"Anyone else have their phone on them?" With just my luck, both Jazz and Mikey shook their heads.

I looked over the closet once more. I noticed in the corner of the ceiling there was a vent. I could easily reach it if I used the shelves as a ladder.

Figuring it was my best bet, I gave the door a final kick before making my way over to it.

"What are you doing?" Jazz suddenly popped at my side. Since I was halfway up already, I was looking down at her for once.

"Getting out of here." I balanced myself on the edge, hoping that my weight wouldn't cause the shelf to fall over. I reached up with one hand and pushed the metal upwards.

I looked back down at Jazz and Mikey, "You coming along?" Jazz didn't hesitate to nod her head. While on the other hand, Mikey cowered further into the corner. "Trust me," I deadpanned, "I don't have a key and no one ever cleans this school. You're gonna be in here for awhile."

I easily hoisted myself up into the vents. I never worked out really, but I somehow had this crazy arm strength.

Thankfully, no air was blowing through the system, but it was still stuffy. I couldn't move in anyway other than a cramped crawl.

I managed to turn around and look back down into the closet. Jazz was already reaching up to pull herself in. I reached out a hand and helped her up even though I knew she could do it all on her own. Mikey scurried up the shelves, almost losing his footing several times. He needed more help up, but Jazz and I together managed to pull his entire body weight into the vent.

"Now what?" Mikey breathed as if he had just done a set of pushups.

Jazz, being the mom that she is, began moving down one direction of the vent. I didn't have a clue of the ventilation system so I found no harm in following her. "I guess we go this way," I told him as I began crawling after Jazz.

"This isn't so bad," Jazz optimistically said as she rounded a corner.

With one glance up I had the perfect view of her ass in my face. It was a sight that would cause Dash to faint. "Speak for yourself," I grumbled, before turning my head down.

I stopped when I heard Mikey speak to himself. He was barely audible, but I managed to understand him, "I don't mind the view."

He squeaked the second I casted a glare at him. I didn't doubt that my skirt hiked up enough for the pervert to see _something_. "If you ogle me anymore I won't hesitate to kick you where it hurts," I threatened. "Capisce?"

Mikey swallowed hard before nodding his head so fast I thought it was going to fly off. I sweetly smiled at him before turning back to Jazz, who had missed the exchange.

"Do you know where we're going?" I couldn't help but be skeptical of Jazz's instincts. I knew that she had no clue where she was heading, but she still carried herself in a confident manner.

"No but I have a good feeling about this direction," Jazz moved a little faster after that. I didn't mention it but my knees were beginning to hurt. The metal wasn't exactly comfortable.

I could hear the echos of Mikey growing more distant. I felt kinda bad for him, but not bad enough to slow down. "Maybe I should go first," I suggested. We hadn't been lucky enough to pass another vent opening. I was starting to question Jazz's instincts.

"I don't think so," Jazz snapped back with a sudden attitude. "If we just take a left up here I'm sure there will be a way out."

"Yeah," I snorted. "Back to the janitor's closet. We've almost gone in a complete circle thanks to your instincts."

Jazz stopped crawling and awkwardly turned to face me. Her back was slouched over as she tried to sit as comfortably as she could. She went threw all of that discomfort to clearly glare at me.

"Why do you have to be condescending to me?" Jazz defensively asked. "Oh and that means to talk down to someone," she added. I rolled my eyes at her hypocrisy.

"I'm just trying to get out of here. In case if you haven't noticed, there's a ghost fight going on."

"I'm just trying to help," Jazz was half yelling by now. Her voice came out ten times louder in the chambers of the vents.

"You've been a great help," I sarcastically agreed with her. "You're the reason that we're in here."

Jazz huffed in frustration. She looked like she was about to cry. Oh jeez I really hope she doesn't cry. Teenage girls can be so emotional. I mean I know I did the other day but that's in the past.

"I want to be useful to you guys," Jazz sighed.

"Useful to us?"

She suddenly perked up from her mood and waved me off. "You know what I meant," she laughed, although not out of joy. "I mean keep you guys safe while there's a ghost attack."

"That's interesting," I commented, "because there have been hundreds of ghost attacks before and you didn't make any move to save us then."

"Well that was then and this is now," Jazz kept a smile while she spoke through gritted teeth. She tried to turn away but I placed my hand on her shoulder, halting her.

I don't know why, but I had the feeling that she was hiding something from me. Her behavior wasn't completely… Jazz-like.

"Jazz, what's wrong?" this time I made sure to keep my voice softer. From my other side, Mikey coughed. I had forgotten that he was here with us.

"I could ask you the same thing," she glanced between Mikey and I. Her eyes darted back and forth, resting on me for a split second longer. There was something she didn't want to say in front of Mikey.

"Hey Mikey!" I quickly snapped at him. He perked up, quivering slightly. "I think I dropped my chapstick back in the closet. My face is burning up; would you be a dear and get it for me?"

"Why can't you just do it?"

"Go," I snapped the single syllable hard enough that it caused for Mikey to leap, as much as he could leap in this tiny vent, into action. He maneuvered around Jazz and I and disappeared around the corner. I don't understand why he found me so threatening, but I'll use it to my advantage.

"Now you," I confronted Jazz the second we were alone. "I'm not stupid and you're being suspicious. What's going on?"

There was a brief pause, although I wished she would hurry up and speak already. I don't know how long Mikey would be gone.

"I know, Sam," Jazz let out a breath as she had figuratively ripped the bandaid off.

Logically, my mind should've instinctively gone straight to _the_ secret: Danny's ghost powers. But no, my silly teenager brain thought of how I had some type of feelings towards Danny, even if I told him I was dating Tucker.

"Look," I tried to think up an explanation for myself, "I didn't mean to hurt Danny, he's my best friend. I just didn't want him to find out yet."

Jazz's nervous composure suddenly faded. She raised an eyebrow at me, "What are you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?" I immediately responded. It took less than the blink of an eye for me to realize my mistake. You see what happens when you try to tell the truth?

"I was talking about Danny's ghost powers." Jazz skeptically looked over me, "What were you talking about?"

"The same thing," I tried to play it off as if it was obvious.

"No, you weren't."

"Yes, I was."

"Sam," Jazz used my name the same way my mother would. I knew that she was tired of my act. "I'm not stupid either. What's been going on with you and Danny?"

I didn't even have time to process what Jazz had just admitted to me. She knew about Danny's ghost powers for crying out loud. This was supposed to be a huge deal. Instead, we're talking about my feelings. Great…

"I guess he mentioned my new found relationship to you," I held a lack of enthusiasm.

Jazz, to my surprise, just snorted. "Yeah," I could tell she was trying to hold back her laughter.

"Well did he mention that it's not true?"

Jazz mischievously smiled over at me, "He didn't have to tell me that for it to be obvious that you guys weren't."

I don't know why, but I returned Jazz's smile. Something about it became very contagious.

"Also," Jazz added, "he didn't have to tell me that he's crazy about you, but I already know that too."

My face burned up the second he she mentioned Danny. _Crazy about me_? Now that was quite the idea. I wasn't totally against it.

Before I could respond, Mickey came bounding back. He was slightly frantic, "I'm sorry, Sam. I scanned the room but I couldn't find your chapstick."

"Oh," I lightly laughed, "it was in my pocket the whole time." I didn't have any pockets, but Mikey didn't point it out.

Jazz continued to lead the way while Mikey trailed a distance behind me. She didn't mention our most recent conversation and I was mostly thankful for that. While I realized I should've asked her how exactly she found out or how long she like any sane person would, it was hard to process. Someone else finally knew about Danny's powers. Jazz was the third human (not including Danny himself) to know about his secret.

Jazz's knowledge of this could possibly mean one of two things: either we've enlarged our ultra mega ghost butt kicking team or we're one step closer to the entire world discovering the truth. I don't think Jazz would spread this secret around, especially considering it was her little brother.

On top of all of that, I don't want to know how Jazz had magically figured out my lie. It was a lame one but the majority of the student body seemed to have fallen for it.

"Hey guys!" Jazz suddenly exclaimed as she began to pick up her pace. "I see an opening."

I peeked around her and noticed a small gleam of light sticking up. It didn't take much effort from Jazz to push on it and cause the cover to fall to the floor with a clatter.

There are a very few moments in my life where I have been so off guard that I almost had a heart attack. Some are good moments while others are… not so good. For example, walking in on Tucker experimenting with his mom's makeup: good. Having a ghost boy knock into me and phase me out of the vents: not so good.

I didn't even breathe when Danny came clashing through the walls and decided to drag me down with him. It's funny how life tries to work out in my favor. One moment I'm in a overcrowded air shaft with a little creep staring at my behind, and the next I'm landing on the classroom floor with my crush landing ontop of me. Referring to Danny as my crush now is radical in itself.

As I peeked my eyes opened, the first thing I saw was Danny staring down at me with the most perplexed look. "Sam?" he drew out my name as if we hadn't seen each other in ages. "Why are you here?"

"To soften your fall apparently," I grunted.

He took the hint and shifted off of me. Danny helped me prop myself up onto my elbows.

Over his shoulders, Jazz hung from the ceiling before expertly dropping down onto the floor. Danny swerved his head in her direction upon the sound of the impact. The two siblings blankly stared at one another.

I wouldn't doubt it if Jazz for a moment forgot that she was supposed to be looking at Danny as just your average ghost, nothing more. When it suddenly clicked, Jazz's eyes widened as she let out a semi-believable yell and ran out of the room ranting about how she saw a ghost. I'm not saying she's a bad actor, but she sure as hell isn't landing any auditions any time soon.

"Is it just me or was that weird?" Danny motioned a thumb in the direction Jazz ran off to. I just shrugged, pretending not to know what he meant.

Mikey, not so gracefully, fell from the vent. He landed rather harshly on his face and landed with a solid oof. I could only imagine what was going through Danny's head. "That was weirder."

"I guess you could say that," I shrugged again.

"Do you always crawl around in the ceiling?" Danny joked as he held out a hand to help me up.

I smirked up at him, "It's called having a hobby, Danny." I took his cold hand, knowing that the help was needed even though I wouldn't admit it outloud. I felt sore the second I stood up. My back ached so much I would've sworn I just aged 50 years.

I got a good look at Danny. I never worried _too_ much about him when he fought just because he had the help from his ghost powers, but it became evident that Serena was proving to be a tougher opponent than any of us were expecting. Danny's white bangs stuck out in several directions. There was a darker green spot on his right cheek that would turn purple the moment he changes back.

"Still haven't found her weakness, huh?" My smile had faded by now.

Danny nodded his head. "But I think we're close," he added.

I nodded my head in agreement. Every exchange with Serena was interesting. Sometimes she seemed ready to rip off our heads while other moments she seemed tired. Not that ghosts could sleep.

I looked around Danny and noticed that Mikey had disappeared. He didn't exactly exude courage.

"Where's Tucker?" I wondered, noticing that someone from our trio was absent.

Danny brought a hand up to scratch the back of his head."I think the more important question," he sighed, "is where's Serena?"

"How rude!" We both spun our heads to Tucker, who stood in the doorway with his arms folded. He glared between Danny and I. I couldn't help but let out a nervous laugh.

"I was only kidding!" Danny lied, holding his hands up in surrender. That didn't cause Tucker's glare to fade whatsoever. He was about as intimidating as an ant, one that I could easily crush under my boot.

I looked over Danny once more. "She's angry isn't she?" I changed the topic back to Serena.

Danny nodded his head. "The only problem is that we still don't know why."

"Is she gone?" Tucker tentatively looked around the room, as if the ghost girl was lurking in the corner, waiting to attack him.

Danny shrugged, "I didn't sense her after the last hit."

"I wonder where she went," I added.

"Where ever it is," Tucker shuddered, "I hope it's far away." If only that were true, Tuck. If only...


End file.
